Lessons from the Ocean

I saw a great bumper sticker the other day. It read

"Everything I needed to learn I learned from the Ocean".

I love that it got me thinking and pushed me to try to

better understand what lessons I'd learned and if they

were actually sufficient. Here are just a few that I've come

with. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what you've learned.

1) Be curious, look around, and take it all in. The ocean holds

so much if we just look. It can tell you the wind direction, the

swell direction, the tide. It can show you where it is safe to be

and where danger lurks. You can see fish, birds, and amazing

colors and hews.

2) Things change constantly. The ocean is never the same and

it can change in an instant. I'm sure you can attest to that. How

often have you missed a great surf session because the wind switched

or the tide changed. How many time have you seen tranquility turn

into stormy chaos?

3) We are pretty insignificant in the big picture. The vastness of

the ocean can humble even the biggest ego-maniacal narcissist. Oft

times even the problems we feel are great aren't really very large

in the big picture.

4) You can't control the ocean all you can control is you in the ocean

if you learn how and try hard. You have to learn to go with the flow,

let the current take you and not waste energy fighting against the

things you can't win against. Learning to relax and go with it is a key

life lesson.

5) You have to respect the ocean you can't dump on it or in it without

some adverse consequences. The Gulf oil catastrophe is teaching that

to us as I write as are the 5 gyres. What we do is having an impact now.

6) The ocean can be a source of the greatest pleasure and the can also

be a source of pain and sorrow.

I'm sure that I've only scratched the surface, no pun intended. What

lessons has our mother ocean taught you?