In Each of Us

    
       As I was writing one night, I went for a walk on the beach with a cup of coffee in my hand. This helps me to think how do I continue my story. It was beautiful twilight, the sun just setting, the clouds going pink in sky. I walked down the road to the beach, and then along the beach heading south. As I did, I came upon a seagull standing on a single leg, who was also out having an evening walk, his single foot tiotoeing shyly into the water. Amazingly, majestically, he was balancing his curved and lovely body, a body the size of a football, on a leg the size of a knitting needle.
     I was touched by the sight. How had he lost his leg? At birth? To the jaws of the shark? The bill of a seagull? The teeth of a dog? What I wondered even more was what kept him going. What Signature Strength had allowed him- no, not allowed, but directed, insisted, commanded him despite his terrible loss- to come out tonight for a walk. Was it a gift for balance? Love of the sunset? The inspiration of challenge? Determinnation? A love of the water? The will to keep travelling with his mates?
     I'll never know, of course, and it doesn't matter. The gull had done his work, inspiring me, reminding me that in each of us there is a unique, powerful impulse, a way we always engage with life that is utterly consistent with who we are at the core.