Little waves on the seashore guided by the irresistible ocean's heart

I had just heard the most refreshingly honest account of a 'returnee' home for the year. I find it quite odd how most returnees talk about how they move from strength to strength to strength (to strength to strength), never wavering, never faltering, never having any major doubts or troubles, except for maybe a bit of physical illness, or a bit of physical hardship. It's like we don't allow ourselves to fail, to doubt, to question.
I realized that this 'oddness factor' is partly because I no longer buy the modern model. It doesn't suffice for me anymore, marching out, sword in hand, assuming assured victory. Maybe the victory is not for us to win (wait; this is actually true - it is NOT ours to win). Maybe it's not a battlefield. Maybe we should be thinking of nuturing and growing and mulching - agricultural metaphors, not those of war and of violence. War and violence assumes there's a winner and a loser. Agriculture works with what one's got, and sometimes you get a bumper crop, and sometimes you lose everything, but at least you haven't destroyed everything in your path along the way. Yes, this is vaguely feminist thought. Yes, it may not correlate exactly with the imagery that we've been given in the good book, but it is more whole, more honest, and more in tune with what we know is good and beautiful in this world. But if not, then we assume if the returnee is not moving onward and outward, then they must be LOSING the battle. This isn't right thinking.