Those who know me know I love to surf. However when the waves are pumping like ex tropical cyclone swells you’ll not find me in the water. The pro surfers love the big waves. I prefer the small ones. I don’t like risking my life and getting bashed about. I like to have fun and know that what I’m tackling is achievable and within my own limits. I also have a healthy fear and respect for the water and what a powerful swell is capable of. Even since I got caught in my first rip at Bondi as a backpacker (swimming, not surfing)!
It’s led me to think about how this applies to life. Wouldn’t it be great if we could control the size of the waves that hit us in life? To only go out in the water when the waves were manageable and the challenges fun? The fact is, in life, we don’t get to choose the size of our waves. Sometimes it’s only when we’re on a wave that we realise how big it is and feels like it might swallow us up.
It reminds me of a few surfs I’ve had in Raglan. When I’ve thought that the waves were manageable and then once I’m out back realise they’ve gone all Raglan on me and I feel like I’m floating over multi story buildings! It’s here I feel the fear, want to back out, head to the safety of the shore. But it’s too late. Sometimes a big wave hits you out of nowhere and you either have to commit to riding it or getting wiped out as it dumps you on your head. Now these are the waves more like life!
The stuff that’s out of our control, that we can see coming and plan for or that comes out of the blue and up turns everything, literally ripping the stability from under our feet. If we can’t get to the safety of the shore we have 2 choices, either try and surf the wave the best way we know how or to let it wipe us out anyway and allow it to take us under.
We don’t always control the waves that come at us in life, but we do have a choice about how we manage them, what we do and how we stay afloat as the waves roll through.
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