Wave Rider.
The ocean…vast, unstoppable, relentless. An unforgiving expanse of undulating pressure, destroying all in its path, while simultaneously supporting the life it has bequeathed to all who reside upon, or beside.
To risk the ocean is to place your life in the capricious hands of physics, chemistry and fate, secure in the knowledge that any and all will erase you without mercy or regret.
Yet the ocean is not the soul providence of the waves.
For within our lives, the pattern of waves beat out a rhythm, a signature upon which we are tossed to and fro.
Be it time, be it fate, be it the continual ebb and flow of success and failure, love and hate, kindness and cruelty, joy and sadness, our lives are defined and described by the presence and the pressures of the waves upon which we ride.
And the presence of mind you carry through the flow.
For each crest and trough are but times of expression and education, times of rejoicing and remorse. The surfer who has learned the truth and the tricks of the water can balance on the highest peak, and survive the deepest depth.
In both circumstance, the art of survival is in having the right perspective and the required skills. The ability of the surfer to transition between the two is really the simple art of maintaining balance during the inevitable rise and fall.
Which is the art and the truth of riding all of the different waves in our lives.
For I know in your time there have been great tragedies and equal victories, and some you have borne with equanimity of spirit while others have thrown you who knows where. Both victory and defeat can destroy you, just as you can learn from both.
The ability to maintain your values, your practices and your disciplines during not only the highs and lows, but also during the transitions, is the secret to flourishing at a time when others fail.
And the art of balance is born out of the knowledge and practice of yourself.
For each peak and each trough carry with them the potential to pull you away from who you are, and question who it is you wish to be. From the epitome of the ego in victory, and the darkness of despair in defeat, there is always something that desires to draw your soul, and tempt your temper.
How easy it can be to lose ourselves in the moment, forgetting all that we hold of value, and succumb to the siren song of our greater weakness.
And in doing so, lose our balance and fall.
Within that moment, of falling and failing, we turn our time over to the powers and persuasions of others, allowing the moment to define us instead of our meditations, our intentions, and our greatest deliberations.
With each wave of life, there is the opportunity and choice of whether to stand as the core of our better intentions, or to fall into the weakest of our failings, and become the person we least desire to be.
Each wave, each moment, is a choice only you alone can make.
But if you desire to be a rider of the waves of life and time, you know as surely as do I that the choice is never really made in the moment, but in all the moments and decisions that came before.
For the soul that is tempered and focused, knowing of itself the truth unto itself, is the soul that can balance in this moment, and the next, and the next.
The greater balance you have in your soul, the greater the waves you can ride.
And remain. Riding.
— Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings