Waiting for Waves

I can smell the salt in the air as I feel the crisp ocean breeze brush over me. . . Today is perfection. 

I watch as small children play in the sand, hands crusty from the half dried, half wet sand they have been building sandcastles in. I look to my left and see a group of pre-adolescent children throwing a volleyball over a net and collapsing with laughter as they come to realize they are not even close to going pro. And I sit here. I sit on the pier watching as the sun slowly sets over the water. I notice a group of surfers swimming their way to deeper waters as they attempt to catch a wave. After what seems like an eternity, one surfer finally catches the perfect wave, rides it in all its glory, and then paddles right back out to the water to wait for another one.  I’ve never surfed before, but from only observing, I think I will leave that to these guys. I am mesmerized by their patience and dedication.  One wave comes and washes right over them. Then the next comes, but it peaks too soon and again washes right past them. Isn’t life this way? All of us are here to catch a wave. A moment of pure freedom and joy. We just like the surfers watch wave after wave pass us by, longing for the chance to ride the ocean’s peaks. Then a moment comes and finally we are set free. But only for a moment. We get our moment in the sun and then we paddle right back out to uncertain waters. Why? As for me, I do it because the ocean never stops producing waves, and in the right time and the right place, we will be taken away in beautiful bliss making every moment worth the wait.