Waves

I love vacation!  We have just returned from a week in Hawaii for a wedding.  (It's good to have discerning friends who invite you to their honeymoon!)

It is amazing to be able to swim in the ocean an not fear Oregon coast hypothermia.  It was wonderful to introduce the boys to snorkeling and boogie boarding and watch them fling themselves into the waves with abandon.

There was a man on the beach with us who may have been a shaved Kodiak bear.  He was like a slab of stone, straight up and down stocky with head shape to match, skin the color of a Hershey bar.  This guy, maybe 55, would barrel into the waves and THEY would get out of the way.  As I was waist deep, attempting to balance in the water I would see him turn straight on and head butt the oncoming wave with a confident, well timed dive just under the curl .  He would dive in and come out standing, unruffled on the other side.

While watching this bear-man I also saw a number of other very sunburned beach goers who had the obvious stamp of tourist, from their streaky sunscreen and beach bags to their tentative strokes in the water.  I watched tourist after tourist head into the surf and try to hold their ground during these oncoming waves.  They would try to out run the wave or try to stand firm, digging their toes into the sand as it approached, or try to jump over it.  I watched again and again as Midwestern Mike and Chicago Charlie got violently rolled by these oncoming crests, tumbled head over heels and come up having ingested well more than a pleasant gulp.

In watching this play out again and again I realized I was watching gravitational life lessons.  There are waves in life, they keep coming, sometimes in quick succession and sometimes there is a moment of stillness before the next.  You know they are approaching YOU, so the life lesson is in how you approach THEM.   In the face of each wave, Bear-man squared off and flung himself into each, letting it cover him.  His willingness to surrender to the weight of the water left him standing (dripping) but standing comfortably, on the other side.  Midwestern Mike tried to control his body during each wave.  Tried to remain upright, keep the water out of his eyes, keep his sunglasses dry, making sure he had his pasty gut sucked in.  The oncoming surf saw all that "control", grabbed him and body slammed him to the ground.

So in the end, being willing to get soaked, giving up control for a minute and risk going into the wave   left the Bear-man having had much more fun and in a better position on the other side.

I wonder how many of us are trying to hold in our gut and keep the water spots off our sunglasses as we weather our daily waves.  I like to control my position, standing firmly planted where I think I want to be, fighting for stability.  A false and fleeting sense of stability.  Maybe risking a good dunking is just what I need?  Maybe there are things under the water or on the other side of the wave that I miss while trying to control the immense ocean of life?  

Maybe I need more research time in the Pacific Islands?