Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

You guessed it, September 19th marks a day to celebrate the pirate in us all.

With a nineteenth century maritime fiction nearing release, I’m quite interested in ‘pirate speak’. Well, perhaps I should more correctly say nautical terms and sayings. With ‘pirate talk’ on the table, people relish raucous m’ hearties, shiver me timbers and avasts. But when it comes to nautical phrases, you might be surprised where they can be found.

To get under way (and I don’t meant to let the cat out of the bag), by and large most of us use terms of a nautical origin in everyday speech. Not that I’m a right son of a gun, but occasionally I’ll hear a phrase in conversation and wonder if it has a maritime origin. I’m sure though that people would be quite taken aback if I broke in mid-sentence with, “I’ll bet that phrase/word has a nautical source!” A random query like that could put them all at sea. You know, those moments when your brain goes blank and you just want to cut and run? They could likely hit the panic stations, and it’s never helpful to go off like a loose cannon.

Fact is, even if you know the ropes life’s not all plain sailing and can really land you in the doldrums. Sometimes it seems there’s the devil to pay (and no pitch hot) and unless someone casts a lifeline, you can be left high and dry. But even when those random squalls hit, so long as you batten down the hatches and hold on ’til the bitter end, you’ll find your way to your proper return port.

And what’s all this underlining hogwash about? Arrrrrr, now we’re talking like a pirate! 🙂

In life timing is everything. Even so, how often do we find ourselves mumbling over the ‘slowness’ of a process?

A number of years ago I wrote an article for Footprints Australia magazine, which touched on this topic. The story focussed on my then three year old daughter attempting to make ‘real tea’ for her daddy. Unfortunately (and unbeknownst to us!) she was attempting something for which she simply wasn’t ready.

Timing is not only moving at a sufficient pace, it’s also not arriving prematurely at a given point.

Think music: in an orchestra each note must be played at the right time by the right instrument or the music ends up sounding like an untidy, jarring mash. Just as a child risks injury when doing a task for which they are not yet equipped, so do we risk attaining a goal prematurely by pushing and pulling, striving to make things happen on our terms. Yes, we can encounter some success, but if we’re not ready for the next stage of our journey through inexperience or sheer impatience, we can miss opportunities that are still developing – even in us.

This is a lesson I’ve had to relearn many times over in my life.

As a writer, patience can be difficult. Over the years I’ve thought various written works were ready for publication, only to send them off and receive a ‘thanks but no thanks’ (if any reply at all). And as I developed my craft I’m very glad these submissions were not accepted!

For much of life, this pressing on doors, testing opportunities and putting ourselves out there is all part of the learning process. But in hindsight, I can see that apparent ‘failures’ were necessary to buy me time, enabling me to grow in myself and my writing ability – and that’s a constant process. So often a closed door isn’t an end, but a ‘not yet’ or a ‘wait’. Every experience in life is training for the future. Our time in preparation shouldn’t be wasted champing at the bit, but living out the learning curve we’re on, readying ourselves for when that door we press on does fall open.