Resting In The Sacred

That little thrust of ocean water on the Oregon beach used to be a powerful wave that crashed over huge underwater stones and roared toward the shoreline. And that powerful wave used to be an enormous swell in the ocean, churning and rolling toward land before it met the underwater obstacles. Now look at it. Weak and spent from all its tumbling life, the thin layer of once strong ocean wave slows and slows until it finally stops.

And then. And then it begins to retreat in the direction from which it came. It picks up speed as it hurries toward the ocean. The little wave, exhausted, goes back home. A side thought: I like the word “return” better than “retreat” because retreat has the feel of failure about it whereas return suggests a reasoned thoughtfulness. The tired wave goes back to the ocean, back to its place of strength, back to the source of its very nature. It returns to be reshaped, refreshed and renewed.

I wonder how life would be different for many of us if we copied the wave? When life gets hard and I am spent from various efforts, worn out, depleted, what if I intentionally went back to the Source? What if I stopped the struggling and rested in the Sacred? “Come to me, all of you who are tired and carry a heavy load.” Come.

What if?