We all feel the call of the ocean in our souls, because like the ocean, we too have ebbs and flows. The tides move in and out across the beach of our very beings. The waves crash upon the shores of our lives, depositing the shells, the seaweed, the trash, and the treasures that make up all that we are. Some days we bask in the glory of the sunrise and sunsets of beautiful summer days, others we cower in the coming of the storms. We are torn apart by the tearing of the surf, of the violent winds, flashes of lightning, and crashing of thunder. We weather the storms of our soul with a curious mixture of grace and terror. We cling to those precious moments in the sun to give us perspective when the storms rage, hoping that we will again see our shores at peace.
When all is lost and we are torn from the shores by the current, adrift in our pain, fighting to regain the beach of our souls it is most important to remember that to fight the current, which is our fears and every demon we ever allowed to haunt us, we are only fighting ourselves. The powerful currents and riptides that cast us adrift respond to our efforts with effort of their own. The only way to make it back to shore is to work with the current, discover that flow within ourselves and accept it as part of who we are. We can turn the very things that we fear into our greatest strengths. Only by accomplishing this will we find our way into the sun again.
In the roiling seas all is revealed to us. We are beings with a tremendous capacity for joy, but a constant companion to that joy is its opposite: despair. We spend an inordinate amount of time trying to deny the negative and embrace the positive, but life doesn't work that way. You cannot have endless days of warm sun without the days of clouds and ever violent storms. Life comes at us all jumbled together, we must accept that pain is part of the bargain, that sadness is part of happiness, that loss is part of gain. We must recognize that all that lives is born to die, that we are given only so many days and nights to discover that which is, and that which isn't. We can choose the illusion that we can delay or deny the negative polarity in favor the positive, but in doing so we only accumulate a negative "charge" upon ourselves. The negative charge is called karma, and it is the accumulation of all the things we've done motivated by fear to deny the existence of suffering and embrace the illusion of pleasure.
The tides remind us that life is a cycle, sometimes moving in, other times moving out. We cannot keep the waters constant, the pressure of the moon sees to that. The weight of the air above us also plays into the equation. We must accept that the natural ebb and flow of life calls to us and does not ask us if we wish to embrace it or not. It will allow us to wallow if we so choose, it will allow us to ignore and deny it. It will continue to flow as it always has, with or without us. When we choose to align our natures with that of the seas, when we get out of the way of the endless cycle of pain and pleasure and allow them to flow as they do through us, we become transformed beings. We discover the lessons we never knew were there, we find that we are not alone adrift in the universe, but part of it. For as we are more than the sum of our parts, so our parts are interconnected with all things. We are the ocean, the birds, the surf. We are the sun and the moon that play tug-o-war with the tides every 24 hours. We are the storms that rage and the beauty that shines upon all things. We are the creeks, the streams, the rivers that flow into the sea. Our hearts, our minds, our very souls whisper sweetly in the winds of the Earth, reminding us that we are as much her children as we are children of the universe. We often forget that gentle whisper, we're too busy living the trivialities of life: accumulating "things," struggling to protect the precious illusions of who we think we are, hoping that tomorrow will be better than today, wishing we were someone or something else, trying in vain to be anything but exactly who and what we are. When we discover and accept that life is and we are all we are ever going to be, we begin to move beyond the illusions and fears and discover the enlightenment that is our birthright. This connection to something greater creates a lightness of being that can be felt, seen, and understood with no effort at all.
Nobody truly considers the power and allure of the sea. It is akin to the first time we fall in love and the reason so many poets are also sailors. The sound of the waves, the gulls, the sweet ocean air, all the power of nature's rythm remind us that it is the sea that spawned all life on earth, for this alone is a magical truth. It stirs our spirit and opens us to the possibilities of existence. If we close our eyes we can hear the rushing of the waves, feel the gentle breeze play across our hearts, calling to us to discover the simple and authentic person inside of us all. If you listen carefully inside, the waves are crashing against the shore in your soul even now. Listen...