Navigating My Waters: A Personal Journey as a Gifted Individual
The personal story of finding peace and purpose in a fast-paced world—and how embracing my giftedness led me to help others cross their own rivers of transformation.
A Personal Story with the Ferryman’s Wisdom
To truly understand the world around us, we need to take a moment to pause. This is something I’ve had to learn, over and over again. Life moves fast, but to really see and feel what’s happening, we need to slow down. For me, as someone who is gifted, this has been essential—not just for coming up with creative solutions but also for understanding myself and my place in the world. The best ideas usually come to me in those quiet moments—while I’m taking a shower or walking through the woods, when everything is still.
But the world doesn’t let us slow down. It keeps pushing us to go faster, to do more. We’re expected to produce more, be more efficient, always keep moving. “Time is money,” they say. And I’ve felt that pressure. The constant expectation to perform, to meet the demands of society, made it hard for me to find the peace I needed to think clearly. Sometimes it felt like my mind was racing, too fast for the world around me.
It took me a long time to realize that finding peace wasn’t just a luxury—it was something I needed. Without that inner calm, I started to lose myself. My fast thinking became a source of stress instead of a gift. I thought I had to adjust to the speed of the world, but I’ve since learned that it’s the other way around. When I connected with myself, when I learned to slow down and understand what I really needed, I found balance. And it made my creativity and insight even stronger.
I recognize that I’m wired differently, and I’m growing increasingly weary of the world.
As a gifted person, I know I’m wired differently. It’s not about being better or worse, just different. My mind works fast, my energy is high, and sometimes it feels like I’m experiencing the world at a different pace. It’s like my brain is tuned to a higher frequency, and I see, feel, and experience more than those around me. That hasn’t always been easy. There were times when I thought something was wrong with me—that I was too much, too fast, too intense. But as I’ve grown older, I’ve come to see it differently.
What if my high energy level isn’t something I need to suppress, but actually a gift? What if this higher frequency of awareness lets me see and feel things that others miss? I began to wonder if this is what it means to be gifted—to see deeper, to feel more. And with that question came a realization: this gift isn’t just for me. It’s meant to be shared, to be used for something bigger than just my own personal growth.
And this is where the concept of the Ferryman becomes clear to me. In many stories, the ferryman is the one who guides people across the river, from one state of being to another. He helps them navigate the waters of uncertainty and transition. I’ve come to see my journey as that of the ferryman—both for myself and others. Being gifted, with all its intensity and fast-paced thinking, can feel like being on one side of a wide river, looking at the other shore where peace and clarity lie.
Gaze at the other shore, where peace and clarity await, and gather the courage to journey there!
But the beauty of the ferryman’s role is that he doesn’t just guide himself. He helps others make the crossing, too. As I’ve embraced my own giftedness, I’ve come to realize that I can also help others—especially those who feel out of place or misunderstood—navigate their own transitions. The gift isn’t just in seeing or feeling more; it’s in guiding others through the complexity of their own thoughts and emotions, helping them find balance and clarity on the other side.
But why are gifted people so often asked to fit into the world around them? Why are we expected to “tone it down” and “be normal”? From my experience, trying to fit in doesn’t work. It’s like asking a butterfly to crawl on the ground instead of flying. Maybe it’s time to see giftedness differently—not as something that needs to be adjusted, but as something that can help us all better understand the world.
Instead of adjusting myself to fit into the slower pace of the world, I’m now trying to use my energy to contribute something positive. I see it as my role, like the ferryman, to help others look deeper, to feel more, and to cross the waters of confusion and stress into a place of greater awareness and peace. And maybe, if we as a society embrace this, we can all move toward a higher level of awareness—one that doesn’t push us to constantly perform, but helps us live in harmony with ourselves and the world around us.
Because in that stillness, on the other side of the river, I believe we’ll find the key to real change.
Best,
Ron van Helvoirt
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