I like to swim at dawn
When no one else is on the beach
And few are in the water
Usually just a couple of surfers
Way out the back – bobbing on their boards and paying homage to the rising sun
As a swimmer
It breaks every rule in the safety book
Don’t do it
And don’t listen to my advice either
Make your own decision
Because
If like me
You prefer no company
In your head
Or in the wave beside you
You’ll love it
A little advice
Make sure you know what you’re doing
Know the water
Be a strong swimmer
Know what a rip looks like
Know what to do if you get caught in one
Know how to get out of it
Don’t go out to far
And always observe the conditions
Control freak talking
Sorry back to the story
Walking
Cold slap to ankles
Knees
Belly sucked against the cold encroaching
Waves
Dive
Head under
Now you’re in
Feel the pull and sway
Then relax
Alert and aware
And enjoy it
For there is nothing on this earth
So enjoyable
As being alone with the great Mother ocean at dawn with only the sound of her breathing to break the silence of your still empty head
This morning she whispered to me
Of many things
As I drifted and lifted
In time with her rocking arms
This morning she told me about choice
And how I was doing it all wrong
She sent a wave to slap and batter
I slid under it
Felt it roll powerfully over my head and body
Then popped up again
She sent another
Not yet broken
Rising up large and slightly daunting
It dared me
And I leapt into its arms
Surfed down its side
Smiling
Broadly
As it carried me in its
Sweeping storming embrace
Sucking
Stealing
Theft of bikini bottom
Yank it up laughing
Rubbing salt water out of my eyes
Turn and spin
Stride back in
Determined to catch another
Swim
Glance back to the beach
Get my bearings
I’ve drifted north
Wade check wade
Good to go
Swim
Drift
Wait
Again
What will I be sent this time?
So nice for my inner control freak
To be out of control
Away from the wheel
I could feel
The magic of pure potential
Pulling and stretching
Which is when she told me
The Ocean
Showed me
What I had been doing incorrectly
With regard to choice
I thought choice was a declaration
Discipline
Enforcement
I had been trying to create good habits
Plan ahead
Set goals
Making a bit of a mess
My entire life – always trying to get it right
And failing
Here I was adrift in pure potential
Anything could happen
And I saw it – felt it
Waves
Life
You can’t set neat and tidy parameters
Boundaries
Fences
Resolutions
Solutions
So rigid
Rigid doesn’t work
Choice is a moment by moment decision
It is not a set and forget habit
Or it shouldn’t be
And trying to do that
Was not working for me
Life is an ocean
You can’t turn your back on
You can’t sit on the shore and watch it from a safe distance
Or you miss it and the point of living
You can’t wade in with a lack of awareness or it will drown you
You must choose
Every moment
Every second
What is the best way to handle this
Or that
And you must choose
Or life will choose you into submission
No that is not the way
You must play
With a smile or a tear or several great lumps in your throat and a heart full of courage
You must play
Don’t walk away
Don’t sulk and pout
Evade
Instead
Pay it the respect of your full attention
Then
And only then
Will you begin
To understand the ocean and your place in it
Or that’s what she told me this morning
Tomorrow it could be different
In half an hour it could be changed
I could be
Altered
In five minutes
A second
And now you’re getting it
Waves of pure potential
With nothing the way it was before
Or will be
Change
Morph
We humans are the only ones who meet each day with the mindset of the one before it
And expect a different result
Pure potential is the only way to start the morning and carry it through the rest of the day, the month, the year
No resolutions from here
Just open and clear
To the field of pure potenital
Happy new year
May it be a good one for all and all you hold dear
❤️👌😉😊🥂❤️