We went on a look at scenery adventure to Girdwood/Alyeska this week. As we were enjoying the drive, Bill mentioned how even though the water we were looking at seemed so dirty and murky, and we think of tropical waters as pristine and full of life, we actually have it backwards. This got my inner science nerd curious and I discovered that temperate and colder waters have much more life, microorganisms, plankton, nutrients coming in from the rivers, and more oxygen and carbon dioxide than tropical waters. All this gives fertile ground (water?) for plants and animals to thrive. Tropical waters have much less ‘stuff’ floating around in them and that ‘stuff’ equals food.
I think this is an excellent metaphor for life. Many of us have probably at some point thought wouldn’t it be great to be so and so, they have had such a smooth ride and everything falls into place for them. I would argue though, that either they have missed a great deal of fun and progress by not having a life of risks, failures, and successes, or you are only seeing the cleaned up for public viewing side of them. (it’s probably the latter)
What if though, we stopped hoping for the sanitized, glossy magazine version of our lives? What if we could see that the things that make life complicated are also what make it interesting? That they are the nutrients that our next steps feed on. When we try to present ourselves as a pristine white sand beach, we are washing out the struggles and triumphs that have made us who we are.
Let us embrace the rivers of experience that bring food for our best wisdom. Let us embrace the sea life that has to work hard and travel far, and thus are strong and resilient. Let us embrace our complicated and sometimes seemingly aimless selves as rich with potential.
Yes, we often want the way forward to be crystal clear, but do we want that decision to be based in a nutrient rich or poor environment? The way to clarity is not to deny or exclude our experience, but to allow them to become the background. To take time away regularly in meditation and silence while life and experience swirls around us is a much more realistic journey. To think that my life (or my thoughts) will be as peaceful and quiet as an idyllic vacation brochure is absurd, and realistically doesn’t sound like much fun. I can find the peace and wisdom amongst the messy, all it takes is practice.
So I will start right now, because that is always the best place to start.
