paddling through life

(c) 2009 Joan Newcomb

I've been following Roz Savage, who is currently rowing her way from Hawaii to Australia (having previously rowed the Atlantic and from San Francisco to Hawaii). It's been fascinating to watch her podcasts http://www.youtube.com/user/rozsavage and read her blog entries http://rozsavage.blogspot.com/. One entry struck me as an apt metaphor for life:

"I don't have as much maneuverability with a rowboat as, say, sailors
have. I can influence but not totally control my direction. Say the wind
is blowing me west (as it is) and I point my boat south (as I do) then I
end up going southwest, or south southwest, or west southwest, depending
on the strength of the wind and, I suppose, the strength of my rowing."

She's affected by convergence zones and currents, which are shifting and changing all the time.

She says "I should know by now that oceans are no respecters of human schedules.
I've never yet been on an open ocean voyage, either by sailboat or
rowboat, that ended up where it was supposed to be, at the time it was
supposed to be. And that's just the way it is. To paraphrase Winnie the Pooh's comment on heffalumps – you never can tell with oceans..."

Doesn't that sound like one's journey through life in general? You point your nose in one direction and then Life intervenes. Energetically, morphic fields look like convergence zones and currents. Collective thought clouds, emotional waves, move across our path, shifting our direction one way or another.

It doesn't work to try to control things beyond our rowboat. It's as futile as swinging your oar at the wind. The best you can do is keep on paddling, using whatever spiritual/energetic tools or techniques you have at your disposal to keep moving. Although you can also pull your oars in for the night and let the current gently take you wherever it will.

From your Expanded Self's point of view, it doesn't really matter whether you're sweating away or sailing along. It's all a very fun and exciting ride.

So I invite you to take the next 7 days to shift your viewpoint about your own life. If you're in effort about trying to make things happen or feel like you're stuck and going nowhere, just relax and enjoy the ride instead.

Email me and let me know what happens! joan@joannewcomb.com