Ride the Waves

A few days ago, while sea swimming in freezing water with the wind whipping across our faces, a friend and I compared notes. 

Already, it’s been a start-stop kind of a year. We entered the first week of January, ready to face it head-on. And then, a few days later… crash. Things were being canceled. People were isolating due to COVID. Possibilities for the coming months were thrown back into uncertainty. Plans we thought were coming into fruition became dormant once again. 

As our words volleyed between us over the frothy waves, I discovered that someone else had a similar week. 

Maybe you did, too. 

The waves of this pandemic have tossed us about, and sometimes we try to fight against them, willing ourselves to go in a certain direction but meeting resistance from a force much greater than ourselves. 

Yet in that moment of frolicking in the waves, naming the frustration at our good intentions being thwarted so quickly in the New Year, we were actually living into another way of being. 

Rather than fighting the waves, we were riding them. Rather than pushing in a direction of our own choosing, we were allowing ourselves to be guided by a force greater than our own. 

I’ve been sea swimming regularly for 2 1/2 years now, and I’ve learned an immense amount about how to read the waves, swim safely, and recognize my limits. There are times when we simply need to stand on solid ground and resist the pull that would take me towards danger. 

But there are many, many days when little resistance is needed. The waves come again and again, we greet them with a jump or a dive, we swoop up in the air as the waves crest, we whoop at being carried down again in that moment of delight. 

There’s definitely something to be said for intentionality, resistance, standing our ground, and moving in a certain direction with empowerment and strength. 

Last week, though, I was invited to simply ride the waves. 

I’ve been doing that every day, literally and metaphorically. Meeting my swim buddies after the morning school drop-off to frolic in the frothy, white, cresting waves, and then returning home to ride the waves of whatever is happening or not happening in my life right now. 

There are directions I wish I could go. There are steps I wish I could take. There are dreams I would love to bring into reality. 

But now is not the time to do those things. Now is the time to simply be, in the moment, and ride the waves as they come. 

What are the waves you are being inviting to ride this month, and can you find ways to frolic and delight in them?

Kiran

Blessing for Our Journey

May the God of the cresting waves

lift us heavenwards 

as we swoop upward 

lift our spirits

as we whoop downward

lift our fears

as we release resistance

lift our worries

as we ride the waves

lift our hearts

as we wait

as we hope

and as we dream.

Amen