For those of you that live near an ocean, you may have heard about rip currents. Rip currents are dangerous because if you get pulled into one, they can suck you hundreds of yards out into the ocean. The absolute worst thing you can do in a rip current is to try to swim to shore (i.e. against the current). The current is too strong and will pull you out to sea and you will be so exhausted from trying to swim against it, there is a high likelihood of drowning. The way that you get out of a rip, is to swim parallel to the beach until you swim out of the rip current itself.

When we feel ourselves being pulled outside of our control, our first instinct is to resist, to swim against the current as hard and as fast as we can so that we don’t get sucked out to sea. Being mindful and aware of your situation, you can calm your fear, and you can make a deliberate decision to swim gently parallel to the shore and survive. You may end up hundreds of yards from where you started, but that's ok, you can always walk back. You may not be able to get back if you get pulled out to sea.

There is a wonderful metaphor here for life. Sometimes life takes you in different directions. Sometimes you end up somewhere that you didn’t plan on being. Sometimes you have to make hard decisions. Sometimes you may find yourself involved in new distractions. Sometimes you’re not the person that you want to be. Sometimes you have to take care of things you would rather not deal with. Sometimes, you get caught in a current, a rip, a wave.