This past year has presented many challenging experiences that have struck me, like one disorienting wave after another. And despite my entire prior conditioning for handling crisis with assumed poise, I found myself disintegrating more with each wave. And in that erosion, came rise to many, long forgotten emotions. It seemed that no amount of reasoning or control could restore me to a place of ease.
Then one day, I had an image from childhood days at the beach. At times when the lake was particularly rough, my siblings and I would spend hours riding those waves with our bodies. Many times a wave would catch you unprepared. Any attempt to gain control, would find you thrashing and rolling, a tangle of limbs. Eventually, the waves heaved you onto the shore, sand and gravel everywhere, and bathing suit askew. But every so often, if you waited and watched the wave rise, and allowed it to lift you, it would carry you with such a force. And if you surrendered to that force, it effortlessly delivered you to the sandy shores. Sometimes you emerged to the laughing faces of your siblings. Other times, you were carried further down the shoreline, to a new landscape and a different perspective.
And so, it is with life. When we stay present to our experiences, without judgment or the need to control them, we allow our life to unfold, as it will. Trusting in the natural flow. Trusting in a Universe that is safe and boundless. Such that, even in the midst of turbulence, a feeling of peace may envelope you.
With Love, Light and Gratitude, Carole