Laying the Foundation for Your Morning Routine77not- green, beautiful, clear lake in Wisconsin that’s bordered
by trees and cliffs. My overly imaginative little brain was
bursting with all of the possibilities of our adventure that day.
I might catch a bajillion fish to bring back to the lake house
for my grandma to fry with her special recipe. Or maybe we’d
discover a new inlet that was a secret cove for pirates and
I’d solve a police- baffling mystery just like Nancy Drew. Or
maybe Daddy would let me drive the boat, and I’d navigate the
lake with the expertise of a seasoned captain, and then he’d let
me drive the car home to Chicago on Sunday.
As I sat with my brother in the front of the boat, imagin-
ing all that the day might hold, we were oblivious to a storm
rolling in. But when my normally calm father began barking
orders, we knew something was wrong. That something was
that the engine had just died and he couldn’t get it started.
To make matters worse, a lot worse, our now engineless boat
was being quickly swept toward the cliffs by the winds of the
incoming storm.
I’d like to say I handled the situation with a cool, calm,
and collected attitude. But then I’d be lying and describing my
brother and dad, not me. I was freaking out. From my per-
spective, we were doomed. There was a raging storm, we had
no motor, and that cliff loomed large. I was overwhelmed by
my visions of our boat crashing into a thousand pieces against
the jagged rocks of the cliff. I pictured my six- year- old self
struggling to swim all the way past the massive rocks to the
beach. My eyes were glued on the clouds rolling in.
My father could have adopted the same perspective.
Thankfully, he didn’t. Instead of focusing on what we didn’t
have, he evaluated what we did have.