Navigating Providence

by Ron Sebring

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 1855-1919, born on a farm in Wisconsin, was an American poet and author, and a master of the English language. This
poem captures the speaker’s principle for navigating Providence.

The Winds of Fate
One ship drives east and another drives west,
With the selfsame winds that blow.
‘Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales
Which tells us the way to go.

Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate,
As we voyage along through life:
‘Tis the set of the soul
That decides its goal,
And not the calm or the strife.