The pull of the tide

My favorite thing in the whole world is the ocean. Be it 50 miles offshore or on the beach, there is nothing like it. Why? I'm going to tell you, whether you like it or not.

The ocean is never the same. You can be in the same place, anchored out or on the beach, for hours and hours on end and nothing is exactly the same as it was before - ever. Not even 5 minutes ago. Not even two minutes ago.

Offshore, the birds are in constant motion, the whales are breaching and blowing air in a different place every time, the fish are swarming and schooling to get away from the bigger fish, and the tide pulls the weeds and garbage by the boat all day long. The only things you see in the same vicinity out there are stationary - anchored in place so they can't move beyond the reach of the amount of lead line given.

On the beach, the same driftwood may be pulled on and off the beach by the tide, but they never end up in the same place unless they become buried in sand. The sand is never the same, the shells are never the same, and any writing in the sand disappears with the next rising tide. But you never know what may turn up with that next tide. It could be a treasure that you decide to haul home. You may pick it up and turn it over, then toss it back down discarding it and moving on. You may think "what the hell is that" and step over it, not bothering to look back. Nonetheless, it's always a fresh start once the tide pulls in then moves out.

How much different is life than the ocean? Each day when you wake up, you don't know what is facing you, what may come across your path or what you may decide to step over and ignore. People, food, work, the drive to work, the paper, new news, old news, the weather. You may pick up what you think is treasure and quickly drop it, because with the first turn over you decide it's not what you thought it was. You may pick something up and bring it home, because it looked like it would be a good compliment to your life. Unfortunately, life doesn't have a tide that ebbs and flows unless you make that happen. You can choose to wake up, keep the same routine, drive the same way to work, do the same exact job every day, take the same route home, drive straight home, eat the same thing for supper, watch the same TV shows and go to bed at the same time every night. Or, you could be spontaneous, creating your own destiny, making your own rules and having your own fun.

I choose to lead the life of the tide, making sure that things are never the same every day, keeping those things that I need to remain as stationary in place. Letting those things that need to be tumbled in the sand until smoothed out like sea glass free to do what they need to until refined. Then, and only then, will I pick them up to hold precious to me and maybe even bring them home. The rest can wash away with the tide, including the things I've written in the sand. It's taken a long time to gain this attitude, but I'm definitely here now.

Hopefully I've given someone else a reason to think like the tide. There's no sense in holding onto the sands if they will only continue to shift.

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