Rolling Waves

For the first time tonight I saw something else - I saw it all differently.

I realized, the ocean isn't zen because it's piece of nature or because its sound is calming. The ocean is zen because it's a metaphor for life.

I sit here watching the waves glimmer in the moonlight. Each one crashes in like a fleeting thought. Each demands all of our attention with its bluster, impossible to ignore. For that moment there is no other wave, no other thought.

The white foam of the wave lingers and pulls in deeper. It spreads out on the beach of our mind and envelops the entire surface. A moment of calm, a meditation. That moment is the present, the only thing that matters.

But then, just as quickly as it arrived, it fades away back into the sea, back to gray. 

Life goes on, the future awaits. 

Sometimes a wave crashes in that makes us forget any other wave ever existed. But even those most momentous of waves will disappear just like the rest. New waves, new thoughts, new moments, crash in to become our new present, the new only thing that matters.

We can't hold on to an old wave we wish would linger a little longer and it's useless to worry about what type of wave may come in the future, all we can do is accept the wave that exists right now - let it wash over us, learn from it, feel the calm that comes from accepting it as it is.

Then wait for it all to change again, for life to change again, as the next wave crashes in.