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Reflection Title: Finding the First Track!


Book – Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing



Book Description: In August 1914, polar explorer Ernest Shackleton boarded the Endurance and set sail for Antarctica, where he planned to cross the last uncharted continent on foot. In January 1915, after battling its way through a thousand miles of pack ice and only a day's sail short of its destination, the Endurance became locked in an island of ice. Thus began the legendary ordeal of Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men. When their ship was finally crushed between two ice floes, they attempted a near-impossible journey over 850 miles of the South Atlantic's heaviest seas to the closest outpost of civilization.

In Endurance, the definitive account of Ernest Shackleton's fateful trip, Alfred Lansing brilliantly narrates the harrowing and miraculous voyage that has defined heroism for the modern age.


Reflection:

I’ve been a bit obsessed by the concept of humanity’s ability to endure through seemingly insurmountable odds and overcome ever since I witnessed my daughter’s incredible courage and strength during her fight for a chance at life in this world. Where does this come from? Why do we do it? Our we unique in this world in our ability to adapt, fight, and endure for a chance at existing in this world?


I’ve read countless books on this journey about this exact topic, just like Endurance about Ernest Shackleton’s incredible voyage to the south pole and fight for survival, and I still have no idea. Whatever the answer is, our human ability to endure through unimaginable circumstances and keep pushing forward is truly a superpower.


I never really understood just how truly remarkable our human ability to endure can be until I saw for myself as I watched my daughter’s incredible fight during her short life. My family went through a lot, and I have every excuse and reason to live my life depressed, hate everything about this world, and pack it in until it is my time to die. However, Emilia made sure that would not be my destiny as she left me with the strongest memory that I’ve ever had or will have, and that was her incredible will to endure whatever was thrown in her path and keep fighting. That is the only memory that I think about when I think back on our time together. This has been my driving force since the day that she left us. Whenever I think about not pushing forward, this is too hard, or I don’t want to do something…I think of Emilia! I literally say to myself, “What would Emilia do?” The answer is always…we fight…we endure!


The core value of “Endure” was the first track that my little lioness left for me to chase her just hours after she left this Earth.


I woke up that first morning after we got back from the hospital following her passing and wanted absolutely nothing to do with this world. My mind was blank and filled with nothingness. I was lost and shellshocked. I wanted nothing more than to lay in bed, stare at the wall, and never get out again.


Then, I thought of Emilia, and I that is when I found my first track in which I would began this quest to follow her spirit as my guide.


I got out of bed, and I forced myself to read something, write in my journal to her, and get my body moving with some exercise. I wrote a little poem called “What would Emilia do?” that morning in my journal. I listed all the reasons I didn’t want to keep moving on this day, and thought…What would Emilia do?


The answer was crystal clear! We keep moving, We keep Fighting, and We Endure because we must! I don’t know why, but I know that is what Emilia would do and I couldn’t let her down.


I haven’t stopped since and don’t plan on it anytime soon.


Question: What feats of human endurance have inspired you to keep pushing forward?