Like Waves

Overall, life has a rhythm. A series of days that become weeks, months, and years. Each year, like a set of waves; fifty-two waves that rise, crest and fall. When you ride the wave of a week, it may seem small and uneventful, like you can float on your back and be rocked by the liquid lull. Or it may turn into a rogue force that knocks you flat and pulls you under. This is when you need to push through and resurface. Regroup in time for the next wave that follows in its inevitable path. But you can be assured that these waves are freak waves, and the storms of life pass just like their uneventful opposites.

Riding the wave of a week can feel monotonous, repeating the same actions and routes in the same order. The dull sensation that, while time is moving forward, we are not. The wave engulfs us, lifts us, and passes us by, leaving us in the same space and circumstance. Like a cork bobbing in the sun. Existing. I’m here, it silently proclaims. For what purpose…I am not sure. But I’ll just keep bobbing.

Riding the wave of a week can also feel crazy and chaotic, like nothing is under your control. You don’t know how high this freak wave will toss you, or where you’ll end up. Your limbs flail around but grasp nothing, no sense of calm or sandy bottom. Just roiling and rocking and riding it out.

And then, sometimes, riding the wave of a week can feel just right. You are in a space where you surrender to the motion, sit back and enjoy the ride. Maybe the waves feel constant and uniform so you look up and around you to glimpse a different view. Maybe this wave seems just like the last so you turn off autopilot and engage. You initiate a hard, but important conversation with a student. You sit down and write whatever spills into your mind. You walk outside an notice a flock of cedar waxwings and their frenzied feeding in a generous fruit tree. These moments lift you, remind you that you are alive and what it feels like to be connected to something larger than yourself.

And you enjoy the wave for the unique moments it brings along with it. Maya Angelou writes “This is a wonderful day. I’ve never seen this one before.” As repetitive as life can feel at times, each day, each week, each wave has something in it that is unique and beautiful. That will lift you, if you let it.

Enjoy your wave…