“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.”

– Henry David Thoreau

Anyone who has been to the ocean and ventured beyond the shoreline to the quiet water beyond will tell you that the easiest way to get back to shore is to catch a wave and let it give you a ride to the land.  There is little success in opposing the ocean’s flow.  Resistance only seems to increase the intensity of each wave; and after a while, we find that we are losing our balance and tumbling into the water.

It is good to have direction in life and to persevere in completing the goals we have set; but sometimes we lose sight of the fact that there might be new methods or new directions that would carry us along on a different path toward our goals than the one we had planned.  When we become ingrained in doing things by only one method, we risk turning our path into a rut that becomes so deep that there is no escape from habits that both limit us and sap us of the joy of living.

Think of that swimmer, floating in the ocean beyond the spot where the waves break on the shore.  She has a choice when the time comes to return to land.  She can walk back and forth, parallel to the shoreline, waiting for a break in the tide to allow her to angle her way home, avoiding the surf; or she can watch for a new wave to form and move to the spot where she can hop aboard and enjoy the ride.  Either way, she will reach her goal; but one trip will leave her taxed and tired and the other will fill her with energy and excitement.

Just like the ocean, life sends us new waves all the time — waves that can be obstacles or catalysts, depending on the way we choose to greet them.  As I become older and more habitual in my ways, I find that it is good for me to ride the waves that wash away the edges of my rut.  It is far easier to keep walking on land that has been made smooth by the many different waves we ride than to be contained by a rut that grows ever deeper each time we refuse to look beyond its walls.

I must go now to my day.  I am sure there is a wave out there just waiting to carry me to something exciting.  I think it just may be life.