New name for my blog

I decided I needed a better name for my blog than "Laurel's Blog." So, I changed it. I chose Set of the Sail because of the quote "Tis the set of the sail and not the gale Which determines the way they go." It's from this longer poem from Ella Wheeler Wilcox:

One ship sails east and another sails west
With the self-same winds that blow.
Tis the set of the sail and not the gale
Which determines the way they go.
As the winds of the sea are the ways of fate
As we voyage along through life,
Tis the act of the soul that determines the goal,
And not the calm or the strife.
-Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Credit for finding this poem goes to my father, who once, very long ago, gave me a copy of this quote, in a little frame. I have kept it for years, transferring it from one apartment and home to another, until I settled into my current home and gave it a more permanent and prominent place on my dresser top. I don't remember when my father gave it to me, nor what he said when he did, but I can guess that the quote touched him in the same way it touches me now. He probably has no idea that I have kept that little thing for so long, and that I have valued it as much as I have. He reads this blog, so I guess he knows now. : )

Sometimes I encounter people who are struggling, and I often want to give them this quote. I think embracing it in your own life is one of the most challenging feats you can accomplish, but if you do, one of the most meaningful and rewarding. So much of my personal history seems to evolve around my efforts to set my sail. So, it seems a fitting place from which to derive the new name of my blog. Thanks, Dad!