Yesterday was a beautiful end of summer day. I had waited around in the hope that my son would decide that he finally did want to go do something summerlike with me or even just go get a haircut. At 3:30 I could wait longer. I went paddleboarding.
Log boom Park sits at the northern tip of Lake Washington. The water there is fairly protected so it remains calm even with the passing speed boats and occasional jet ski. The conditions were great for paddleboarding and afforded me an opportunity to be with myself and observe my thinking.
I recently heard that the ego does not exist in the present. It only exists when we are reliving the past or worrying about the future. It came to my attention while paddleboarding that I was spending and awful lot of time thinking about the past, which means I was spending a lot of time identifying with ego. So I positioned my boat upwind of the landing and floated. I placed the life vest under my head and relaxed into the board with one goal - to be here now.
I closed my eyes and paid attention. What I noticed was a wave coming on the right side of my board and exiting on the left, coming on the right and exiting left, coming on the right, exiting left, while I floated effortlessly above.
Like the waves, situations, people, thoughts and feelings enter our lives and like the waves, so will they go. I am as powerless to prevent this as I am the coming and going of the next wave. What I can do, is try to place my board in a favorable position, then lay back and experience the now.
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