In
With Abundance
I’m
not big on New Year’s resolutions, but I do like
to take the beginning of the year to set out
some intentions. This year, I’d like to do more
surfing and more personal writing. To help me, I
have started keeping a “wave journal,” jotting
down my thoughts any time I come back in from a
surf. I note the time and tide, a memorable wave
or wipeout, and any glimpse of wisdom the ocean
has to share.
I
recently read The Serviceberry, a new
offering from Potawatomi botanist and author
Robin Wall Kimmerer, who encourages us to think
in terms of abundance, instead of scarcity, and
I decided to apply that thinking to my surfing.
I tend to let impatience push me too close to
shore, then get taken by surprise by bigger
sets. Now, instead of getting down on myself
when I miss a wave or get crushed by a breaker,
I take a moment to remind myself that there’s no
shortage of waves and no shortage of time to
catch them. I take a deep breath, paddle myself
into a better position, and get ready for the
next one.
I’m
happy to report this has worked incredibly well,
allowing for calm and focus in the surf. Last
week, in fact, I caught one of the best waves of
my life, on a day with waves so small I almost
didn’t even paddle out.
Back
on shore, I jotted this lesson down in my wave
journal, and, because I’m a word-nerd, I started
wondering about the origins of the word
“abundance.” I learned it comes to us from
Latin, from abundare, which means to
overflow. Deeper inside the word is
undare, “rise in a wave,” and deeper
still we get unda, from an ancient word
for “wet.” So not only did I get a great lesson
from the ocean, but I also got a jolt of
serendipity. Abundance, indeed.
As
a journalist steeped in climate coverage, I need
moments like these. We all have plenty to worry
about. Our politics are getting crueler, the
planet is in peril, and nature’s out of whack.
Even as I write this, a major swath of the
country is recovering from brutal winter storms,
and Los Angeles is confronting multiple
devastating fires. But to think in terms of
scarcity, to only see what’s lacking (or
horrible), is to miss the gifts that bolster us.
Good things do happen. Progress does happen. But
it comes in increments, like droplets of water,
so small you might miss them, drip, drip,
dripping toward an
overflow. |
