"Ironically, staying in comfortable waters often creates an illusion of safety and it is only once we step outside our comfort zone that we are able to see both self and surroundings as they truly are. When one feels lost and bereft of purpose and meaning in one's life, discovery can only be made by swimming far out beyond shallow waters, plunging deep into self and searching patiently until the pearl beyond price is found.
If there is one thing that I know with all the certainty of my life today and to come, it is that the finding of self may be either hindered or helped by another, but it will never be found in another!
Few of us welcome change in our routine and lives, yet change is often the one thing which is most needed to move on. By delving deeper into the unknown waters of life, we delve deeper into self.
I recall in my teenage years that the aspiration which many men would have gladly settled for was to attain the status and working position of foreman. I began my working life as a textile labourer and then changed to the profession of singer, followed by hotel receptionist. I became a textile foreman at 22 years of age, under-manager at 25 and a mill manager at 27 years old. This was followed by becoming a textile labourer once more while I studied at night school. I concluded by 25 years as a Probation Officer until I retired and have for the past 25 years been an author.
There comes a time in all our lives when it is right to stay put and right to move on, and recognising such times and acting on them will lead us to finding our real self.
Though my career has been varied and as chequered as most, my blessing is that I have loved every job I have ever had and I have benefited from every job move I ever made. I know that were I to spend my life all over again, though all my past work has profited me and others, I would not repeat my career, but would try fresh occupations and sample new experiences. High on my list of career choices would be those of carpenter, news reporter, radio presenter, doctor, barrister, priest, forester and travelling map maker (cartographer).
I would love to be able to travel the country, looking for places where the residents live happy and healthy lives, forever carrying with them buckets of hope. I would love to find places where all children, widows, war veterans, infirm, handicapped and the old person is ranked before the abled bodied in the tables of reckoning and the lists of the privileged. Once such places had been discovered by me, I could reveal its location to the rest of the country in my 'map of happiness' and then change my occupation to that of train driver, in order to take you all there!” William Forde: April 14th, 2016.