"People* are not free when they are doing just what they like. People are only free when they are doing what the deepest self likes. And there is getting down to the deepest self! It takes some diving."
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For all of you who've had the joy of being a child at the beach, wading out, having your hand held, feeling the little waves slap against your legs, the tug of retreating waves, the sand being sucked from under your feet, you already have a wonderful context to imagine what it is to go deeper in our interior lives.
Shallow water is wonderful, just as wonderful as deep water. It's just that, over time, we want both.
Remember going farther out into the ocean--the water rising every few steps--the waves slapping higher up--a strong force--3 steps out, 2 steps back?
At each point, growing up, you find your appropriate depth. Until you're ready, a big person stayed with you. You held hands. Your big person was an anchor--the waves that knocked you back didn't knock her or him back.
You grew. You became a big kid. Imagine that! You could go out by yourself or with other kids about your size. You learned to jump up high when the waves came.
And then you learned to duck under them--or dive right through them.
You ventured out a little farther. Some of the waves were too big to dive over or through--and if you just stood there they'd slap you really hard, maybe knock you down and tumble you along the bottom. You learned which waves do what. You learned to go under the big ones if you wanted to stay where you were. Or to ride them all the way in if that's what you wanted.
Now you're grown up. Imagine that! You probably don't play in the water as much as you used to. But life is still full of waves. Your memory of beach and ocean is a wonderful gift.
Pay attention to each day's waves. Some you can stride right through. Some you can rise over or ride back to shallow water. But now that you're so often in deeper water, most waves invite getting under, one way and another--ducking or diving or just gracefully dropping below.
And now that we're all grown up, it's kind of ironic to spend so much time bitching out loud or to ourselves about all the damn waves when some part of us understands that once upon a time we knew exactly how to play in them.
*I changed 'men' to 'people'
