Dear Reader:

With summer’s arrival most of our thoughts turn towards the beach and  ocean. It is something about watching waves roll in that sooth the soul. Perhaps it is some ancient magnetic pull from when life began or the comfort and security of knowing that the waves will continue to roll in just like the sun appears in the east each morning and disappears in the west.

In the world we all live in, filled with such turmoil and rapid change, waves are a constant in a world that doesn’t have many “constants” in it. The ocean is something we can count on to be there year after year after year with the same waves rolling, rolling, rolling back home to the shore.

Monday the Ya’s head to Edisto for our summer retreat and no doubt we will make the trek to the beach so we can watch the waves aimlessly roll in and let our problems drift away. The ocean has a way, like the stars, of making our daily problems diminish until they are no longer “giant” problems but just “little” problems that don’t deserve all the attention we have given it.

I love to watch the older children making those last minute decisions (I remember making) as the waves come pounding down….do I jump over or dive under? Immediately one knows if the right decision was made. Either you come up past the wave or you are able to catch it in time to jump over it before it forms into the mighty “crusher.” Or we are taken down and thrown around by a wave we never saw coming until it was too late.

Problems in life are like the waves, aren’t they? Sometimes it is better to dive under the wave and get to the “root” of the problem thus avoiding its mighty impact. Other occasions, if we can see the problem ahead of time, we can hurdle over it before it has had time to grow larger and take us under with it.

Some days the ocean seems downright balmy….hardly any waves lapping against the shore. And don’t we all go through “blessed” periods of peace when life seems to settle down and we can float calmly without the worry of a problem crashing down on us?

But other days the ocean is “choppy” and the waves, for as far as the eye can see, continue rolling in so quickly one hardly has time to catch their breath before getting hit with another wave. Unfortunately we have all experienced these extended periods of problems that seem determined to take us under and keep us there.

Like Donald Davis, the famous Appalachian storyteller, told my eighth graders one time, “If you don’t have a problem, you’re dead.” Truer words were never spoken. From the time we take our first breath until we take our last, life is filled with problems.

It is our decision-making skills that we learn going through life on how to handle the next wave of problems that determines the success of our lives. It is always our response to our problems that define who we are as a child of God.

I am quite sure most of you know the following  anecdote taken from the  novel “Tuesdays with Morrie” titled “The Littlest Wave” but, for me at least, I need to be reminded of it ever so often.

Tuesdays With Morrie…

“I heard a nice little story the other day,” Morrie says. He closes his eyes for a moment and I wait.

“Okay. The story is about a little wave, bobbing along in the ocean, having a grand old time. He’s enjoying the wind and the fresh air — until he notices the other waves in front of him, crashing against the shore. “

“‘My God, this is terrible,’ the wave says ‘Look what’s going to happen to me!’”

“Then along comes another wave. It sees the first wave, looking grim, and it says to him, ‘Why do you look so sad?’ “

“The first wave says, ‘You don’t understand! We’re all going to crash! All of us waves are going to be nothing! Isn’t it terrible?’ “

“The second wave says, ‘No, you don’t understand. You’re not a wave, you’re part of the ocean.’ “

I smile. Morrie closes his eyes again.

“Part of the ocean,” he says. “Part of the ocean.” I watch him breathe, in and out, in and out

 …………………………….

So until tomorrow….Isn’t that the secret of life with all its problems? We are all part of the universe and play an important role… as in one little wave among a big ocean. Alone, we are nothing but together we are ONE connected to everything else in the universe. I find that very comforting.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

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