November: Learning to be a Better Surfer

One of the challenges I’ve been enjoying most is calling someone once a week and telling them the impact they’ve had on my life. Every single call has inevitably had a moment of tears from me (no surprise). Most of my calls have been to people I haven’t kept in regular touch with over the years, which inevitably leads to a wonderful catch up (also no surprise). In a number of calls, I have received words of wisdom - small treasures, really - that really make my brain tickle or give me an anchor to keep hold of (these always surprise me).

In one of my recent calls, a very dear friend dropped one such nugget of gold: “Life is all about learning to be a better surfer. Sometimes you hit the wave head on, sometimes you let the wave pass, sometimes you dive under the wave, and sometimes you get to ride the wave.”  

November started out great! I took a phenomenal pottery class with some neighbor friends. We made a date night of it - dinner, drinks, and two of the three of our first time wrangling clay (I’m 100% sure that’s NOT pottery slang). I managed to come out of the class with two small bowls, both of which I kept and am VERY excited to use once I get them back from the Pottery Lab.

And then, the November wave hit – hard. A rotating door of illnesses swept through the house: strep throat, fevers, colds, stomach bugs (yes, plural), and pink eyes (again, plural). Work picked up drastically. Tobin protested bed time and naps and just sleep in general. Plans to accomplish challenges squashed. 

Honestly, I spent a good chunk of the month annoyed. But, as all solid words of wisdom do, I couldn’t shake “life is all about learning to be a better surfer”. I was getting caught in the eddies of not following my plan, feeling the self-imposed pressure of falling behind, and letting myself spiral (I know, I’m mixing surfing and kayaking metaphors). I was being a terrible surfing student, trying to push against the weight of the ocean as if I could move it myself.

I’m coming to realize that a major part of aging really means gaining enough wisdom to recognize the patterns of our mental/emotional traps in hopes of escaping them more quickly so we’re able to enjoy riding more of the waves. The Type A, first born daughter, planner, Virgo perfectionist in me wanted to do more, stick to my plan. But the wave hit me head on, so what I can do for the months (and really, life) ahead is practice letting it go and remember that other waves are coming - some of which I’ll get to ride and feel in the flow again. 

Onward to December! 

Tasks finished this month (for those of you following along on the list): 

Pottery class

3 out of 12 monthly date nights 

10 out of 50 weekly impact calls

6 of 40 “purple couch” conversations

3 of 40 written memories

BONUS SECTION: We did get to see (with the naked eye!) the Northern Lights here in Boulder this month and it. was. AWESOME!