“We can’t control the sea, but we can learn how to surf the waves.”
– Headspace app
I remember going into the ocean as a kid and getting smacked full in the face with many a wave. Mouth full of salt water, rubbing my eyes, there was always a feeling of being against some huge force and not being strong enough. And then I learned to play with the waves. To dive into them as they came. To ride on the swells. Though I’ve never been a surfer, I found myself riding the waves in other ways. To listen to what the ocean is telling me and to feel part of it rather then in opposition to it.
As I write this, there is an ocean of changes swirling in other ways as well. The recent EU referendum in the UK and the Australian double dissolution election caused some waves, and there are also some gathering on the horizon with the election in the US. On a more personal level, I am embracing a very nomadic lifestyle (for a while anyway), and there are waves of fear and excitement around that.
With all these figurative waves around me, I’m trying to take a lesson from the literal ones and ride them, dive into them, listen to them, preferably reducing the number of times one of them smacks me in the face!
What waves are you surfing these days?
