“Surfing the Wave of Life”
by Nora Caron
May 31, 2010

Swimming in the California ocean has taught me much about life. For one, in the ocean you learn never to turn your back to the direction in which waves are coming from because you might get tossed head-over-heels in a second. Also you want to paddle fast in front of the wave to get a good speed and to catch the wave just at the right moment. When you don’t make an effort to catch a wave, it just passes over you, leaving you behind. I’ve also learned that if you try to go against the current in the ocean, you lose a lot of energy and you could eventually drown from sheer exhaustion. I recently found out that many drownings occur simply because people exhaust themselves swimming against the current rather than swimming with it.
When people say, “Never turn your back to the direction in which waves are coming,” what they are really saying is be attentive to what is happening around you at all times. In life if we are not alert, sometimes we can get tossed around and might even go under. My advice to you in the troubled times that we are living right now on Earth is to make sure you always stay alert, and watch the waves of your life closely to make sure you’ll duck dive in time to avoid an unfortunate event. You can never be too alert in the ocean, and you can never be too alert in life.
To catch a wave in the ocean, you need to work with it. A surfer has to paddle about 15 km per hour to catch a wave in order to ride it. So although surfing might look easy, it really isn’t because the surfer must calculate the right distance and timing before she “pops up” on the board. In life, it’s also important to gage our speed and timing. Windows of opportunity are rare, but if we’re alert and we jump up just in time, we can catch the greatest wave of our lives. Sometimes, though, it’s best to just let an opportunity pass if we haven’t prepared enough for it, or if we haven’t been going at the right speed to catch it.
Lastly, fighting the current in the ocean is a waste of time and energy, and could lead to drowning. One of the first lessons I received in the ocean was to move with the pulse of Mother Ocean, to kick whenever she was kicking toward shore. If you work with a current, you will preserve your energy rather than lose it. Life is like an ocean: it can rage; it can hurl you far out; it can caress you; and it can soothe you. By swimming along and synching your self with the greater force around you, wonders start to occur. It often takes patience before you reach the shore, but stand firm and work with the forces around you, learn their pulse, and always keep your head up because you never know when the next wave will come.