Ride the Wave

I'm starting to dread writing this blog.  I feel like I am running out of things to say or I keep saying the same thing.  I have to remind myself I don't write this for myself.  If I wrote for myself I wouldn't write on the blog, I would write on a piece of paper.  I wouldn't think about what might be hurting you and dragging you down.  I wouldn't think about what might encourage you.  I would only think about what is in my own life and write things that would free me.

Here I am, writing this even though I don't feel like it, hoping you will be encouraged.  Maybe you'll be encouraged by the fact that I'm doing something I don't feel like doing. 

I spent most of the past week being sick.  It was mostly a cold except for the on and off fever I had on Christmas Eve.  I didn't want to talk about it.  I just wanted to quietly feel bad and I knew eventually I would feel better.  I kept waiting each day to feel better, then I didn't.  Some days I did what was on my schedule because I was tired of waiting to feel better, but most days I rested and waited for my health to return.

On Christmas Eve I exercised.  I didn't feel great, but I didn't know when I would feel better so I took the opportunity to exercise while I could.  Within a few hours, I was sweating and shivering with a fever.  It took 5 days to feel well enough to exercise again.  I started getting tired of feeling badly.  I had plans for my break.  My plans weren't to lie on the couch.  So often our plans are interrupted or changed.  How do we handle it?  How do we adapt?  Do we accept the change or do we fight it and complain about it?

We are on the cusp of another change.  The new year begins soon.  Will the change bring anxiety and frustration or will it bring promise and hope?  Sometimes I think it would be better for us if we were like the albatross I have seen on the Oregon Coast.  They sit out on the waves and let the ocean move them freely.  They aren't frantically paddling away from or into the waves.  They enjoy the ride however it comes.

As that next surprise comes sneaking up behind you try to sit back and relax.  Try to enjoy the wave even if it is big and scary, it can also be exciting.  Find the beauty in the water and the scenery.  Find peace even in the midst of chaos.

Now you can see why I write.  I don't feel anything important or valuable, but as I type, the words you need to hear come flowing out of my finger tips.  Whatever the week brings, ride the wave.