Surfing: a metaphor of life and love

Because of surfing, I have come to understand life in a whole new way; everytime I go out surfing the experience is new and unanticipated. You don’t know what it will hold. The best you can do is just let go and let the wave ride you. In time, you develop the skills you need to deal with the waves you are getting. 

In time. 

You may have done that new thing you learned a thousand times before, but it only ‘works’ in the moment you discover it and were meant to discover it.  Sometimes you can do something which in theory produces a result, but have it not work for you. When you put too much headspace into what you want to create, the creativity dissipates and leaves you with only a step by step image of the final result. Get on your board. Paddle. Look up. Stand up. How ungraceful is that? It’s mechanic, robotic. 

When you internalise your passions, take them on and make them part of your being and essence, it is then you become one and can transform the passion outward into the graceful form it is meant to be. 

Surfing is a feeling deep inside. It’s the way the feeling takes over you, guides you to do the right thing at the right time. It’s the magic of all manor of forces coming together in one single moment – when you stand up and let the wave navigate you. 

Surfing is a lot like falling in love also…the end result is beautiful, gracious, amazing…But so much goes into it beforehand. Waxing your board, battling the water for a break, lying in wait for the wave, swimming out to catch it…The bruises, the wipeouts, the sand everywhere…But we do it all for those few seconds, where we can be on top of the world…

Copyright © 7 March 2011 SoulSurfer