Riding the Waves

   

   Water is the greatest metaphor for life.  I have used it a multitude of times for various situations.   It only makes sense that I would be contemplating water again since I am in Bali.
     I arrived in Uluwatu in hopes of getting to a quiet beach while I awaited my extended visa.  I needed to be somewhat close to the Immigration Office. The beaches are beautiful and not too terribly busy since it is the middle of the week, but I will say, peaceful is not the first adjective I would use to describe this area...particularly at night.  It reminds me of a typical university town on an average night of partying.  Anyway, I was getting irritated with all the partying outside my quaint home stay and was sharing this with a dear friend who kindly reminded me of the zen idea that may or may not be quoted exactly from the original, but it got me back in my right mind...
     "Spirituality is not about being serene while you wash the dishes.  Spirituality is washing the dishes".  Isn't this so true? Sometimes you just have to roll up your sleeves and get the job done, or in my case, deal with drunk, rowdy tourists and realize life is not all about me.  With this zen thought in my head, I walked down to the beach yesterday and found myself watching the waves.  Andy, my percussion teacher from these last few weeks, said, "Toni, the most important thing is that when you practice, focus on your practicing, when you eat, focus on eating, when you are texting, focus on texting, but don't try to go back and forth all the time or you will never become a good musician."
     So, yesterday I focused on watching waves.  I particularly watched the surfers catching waves.  I wondered how they knew which wave to catch and which ones to let go by.  Pretty soon, I knew I would be blogging again as this became a metaphor for dealing with life's rolls of frustrations, small problems, big problems, and annoyances, all interspersed with moments of serenity.  I would say that most of us in the western world are pretty spoiled when it comes to this.  We don't have a good system of triage for our problems.  Everything seems like a big problem to us, and sometimes we do go through periods when this is true.  But usually, we forget to enjoy the moments of serenity and let the smaller issues roll by, knowing that another moment of serenity will come soon if we just don't get bent out of shape about it all.  When a big one does come, that's when we grab hold with all the courage we can muster, we stand our ground and get balanced, and we ride that wave with all the tools we have.  Sometimes we face plant and sometimes we make it to shore, but at least we gave it our all, and then....another moment of serenity.

     Today, I went to the Immigration Office in Bali.  The computers were backed up so the wait was very long and all the expats were tense.  The locals looked like this was just part of life.  I sat down to wait and all I had was my phone with some old books I had read in iBooks.  I opened to a book I had started to read again a few months ago, and this was the first thing I read...
     From True Refuge by Tara Brach.  She is quoting an eighteenth-century Zen poet, Ryokan.
"To find the Buddhist law, drift east and west, come and go, entrusting yourself to the waves."
Could this be simply a coincidence  I don't care, actually.  It was what I needed to read.  I had already decided what I was going to write in my blog, and this was just sealing the envelope.
     My serenity in these last weeks of swimming in the proverbial ocean has been in meeting some wonderful young musicians in my music program, creating a relationship with an exceptional percussion teacher who gave so generously of his time and his knowledge and  has inspired me to really work hard, meeting wonderful people here in Bali who have been incredibly generous and compassionate.  I had a driver who had been driving our group a good bit during our stay who brought  me to Uluwatu the other day.  When he left, we both had tears in our eyes.  Today, my driver gave me some language lessons on the way to the immigration office, this week; a young man who works on the beach, Benny, shared his story with me about moving to Bali from Sumatra and then shared his rice and fish with me at lunch today.  These are the things that make a difference.  As we come into people's lives, we don't know what kind of impact we will be having on their lives.  It's these little things that can create a moment of serenity for someone.  I know it has for me. If we will just ride the big waves with courage and let some of them pass by letting go a bit, we will hit more moments of serenity. I
     After watching the waves, I watched people letting go.  Here is what I saw....