It’s a glorious, warm day and I am glad to ride a few waves in the local surf beach.
Those who know some of my personal history may marvel, with me, that 15 years on from our tsunami experience, and now in my mid-seventies, I am still wading into the water with my body board and catching the better waves to ride into shore.
In keeping with my idea of a ‘contemplative life’, I found myself asking just this question: ‘What am I doing in the surf?’ Several quite important insights came to me.
- Basically, the activity is about watching and waiting, for the next wave that will take me to shore. It’s always a matter of judgment, and I freely admit to sometimes getting it wrong. Some waves are not really worth it. Some intimidate me, and occasionally I feel that ‘Oh s…t!’ sense that will never leave me in the face of a really big wave. But most of the time it is simply a matter of seeing where this thing will take me. That’s where I am and what I’m doing.
- Sometimes the wave does not carry me as I might have expected, and even the better ones, I noticed this week, sometimes end up taking me ‘sideways’, not where I might have aimed to be.
- I realise, too, that I am not as strong as I once was, and that is a reality to accept and adjust to.
- Then I notice, too, the numbers of confident young people who think they have it all, and many of whom pay no regard for older or younger ones sharing the experience. Enjoy it while it lasts, I say. And keep safe.
- All of these things are simply momentary realities. Waves come and go. The beach today may be so different from yesterday, or tomorrow, and it is certainly changing over the long term, as climate change is affecting the tide levels and eroding the dunes. All this, too, is indicative of where we are.
The ‘contemplative life’ is not about withdrawing from the general community or the life of the wider creation. On the contrary, it is about discovering ‘holy days’ in our everyday. The origins of the term ‘holidays’ is exactly the idea of allowing ourselves to see the holy presence, the creative spirit at the centre of all things, in our lives, our ordinary activities and relationships. Holidays are times to see how our everyday may be holy days.
Contemplation is not, then, about ‘holy thoughts’, nor even the current trend for ‘mindfulness’, but is simply learning to be, to be where I am, and to give thanks.
I am still here—even in the surf!
I am blessed by, immersed in and enveloped by the reality of life, the given reality. I am carried forward into life, wherever it leads me.