Going With the Flow
Going With the Flow
Sailing on the Waves of Life
It’s Thursday, January 23, 2025, a day at sea, and I am writing this while on a cruise amongst the islands that populate the Bahamas, because we never know when an “ah-ha” moment will occur, and I just had one. I am reading a book by Oliver Burkeman entitled Meditation for Mortals, a book about embracing our limitations and making time for what counts. In the book he quotes Ann Patchett who shared a perspective which I’ve paraphrased many times, but didn’t know the source. She says: “It helps when you can realize that this part of life, when you don’t know what’s coming, is often the part that people look back on with the greatest affection.” The truth is we can’t know for sure how reality will unfold and even though we think we have things under control, we don’t. This fact is essential to enjoying life and the foundation for the open-ended philosophy of “going with the flow.” The lesson being that getting what we desire usually doesn’t happen the way we think it should. Seems that the universe has its own way of making dreams come true. I learned this axiom from someone who taught me that control is an illusion; unfortunately, I leaned it too late to keep her as a friend, which is a story for another time.
The metaphor I use with clients and students on this topic is that control is like grasping an ice cube. You think you have it, but the more you squeeze it, the faster it melts away. And when it does, there is no way to salvage its previous form. I think most of us have experienced some aspect of life where love or fame or riches or whatever is within our reach but not in our grasp. Those moments can be life changing and very often worth talking about. That is what my ah-ha moment has been today. To quote an adage of uncertain origin, almost everything that happens is either a good time or a good story and this trip is turning out to be both.
Szenippet: Going with the flow, letting go of our need to control, allows for infinite possibilities, both good and bad. Either something magical happens or at worst we’ve got a new story to share. And strangely enough, by sharing our stories we often create the magic we seek.