The Ocean and Hope
10th October, 2014
As surfers we enter the water hopeful of “a positive and immersive experience” and the ocean seldom fails to provide. Individual or shared experiences give a sense of being part of something much larger than ourselves.
Potential encounters and our perception of these are limitless and the ambiguity contained within this pursuit creates a breadth of hopefulness without fixed expectation. The very fact that each wave contains unpredictability offers an opportunity to become more present, more grateful for each moment, more awed by our environment and our place within it.
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Hopeful and wishing to protect what we love?
Not lucky enough to live near the ocean – hear it in your heart!
Paddling out within calm sea we might find space, freedom and a lightness of spirit to take time to “slow down, simply breathe and be” within the expansive blue space.
The conditions could be ideal for our ability, whereby we catch a few awesome and exhilarating rides, its ok that we miss a few too, since this serves to increase our tenacity and determination.
Perhaps we find ourselves outside our zone of comfort the positive stressors upon our mind and body offered by the challenging conditions take us to a new level of curiosity and creativity.
The ocean teaches us to be hopeful yet adaptive, if we expect a precise outcome, we become fixed, lacking fluidity of thought and behaviour and forget that we are after-all largely water.
Imagine if we chose to only to hope for, seek out and offer “positive and immersive experiences”!
- How much more present could we become?
- How seldom would we be disappointed?
- What could we learn and how much more connected could we feel?
Reading my friend J’s book Blue Mind it is clear that ANY blue space can provide a metaphor for living with more awareness and a greater sense of who we are and how we can live more ecologically within this ocean planet.
What are your water metaphors for Living Blue?
