Pink plus or minus.

Bliss Out

When surfing in the northern Pacific Ocean, it’s easy to not notice when you’ve cut yourself. But once you do, the little voice of “shark” can’t help but pop into your mind.

But when the weather and the waves seem to be cooperating as much as they were last weekend, it seems pretty foolish to let a small cut get in the way of walking on water.

Saturday I had the chance to go back out into the water with my board. This time with Johannes’ cousin who was visiting from Finland and a local woman who probably had a long board that was about twice her size. It was a blast.

As in all things that are that much fun, and that require that much concentration, it’s easy to lose yourself in it all. Which is the point, at least in part. To remove all the clutter from your brain and just focus on the joy of playing in the water and the challenge of owning a wave (or two) if you are lucky. Of course, when you look up to see that you’ve managed to get half a mile or more down the beach without noticing, it can be a bit frustrating. Walking back with your board isn’t nearly as fun as the slow, unconscious drift.

Still, it’s all worth it just to experience if even briefly, an escape from the everyday. I’m still a terrible surfer as far as skill goes. But I sure as heck wasn’t thinking about bills, our underwater rental house in Everett, fishing regulations, politics, school, laundry, office drama, playoff hockey, gas prices, over-promising, under-delivering, the state of our national economy, the value of the dollar or the meaning of really much of anything. Minus the occasional mental hiccup that would utter under the whispered breath of “shark” – I was just blissing out.

It seems to me pretty critical that everyone find something they can turn to that can create that for them. The same way you unplug your computer, you need to unplug your brain from time to time. I for one don’t find that bliss when I do nothing. Lying on the beach drinking Pina Coladas never really appealed to me. It’s only when I’m doing something very specific, something that is both mental and physical, that I can get to that bliss state.

There are moments in work and family that one can get there, too. It’s those moments when you are truly enjoying what you are doing and you don’t really care too terribly much about anything beyond the task at-hand. I think we get those moments to clue us into the fact that we are on the right track, that we should appreciate more each moment we are given, that even the occasionally seemingly insurmountable chaos of everyday life is really not all that important. When I die, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be thinking of how much money is in my bank account or whether I muscled for rank in the my career as much as I should have. I’m probably not also going to think of surfing. But I’d like to think I can have that moment of bliss when the final curtain is drawn, as I make my way to the unknown other side.

Not that I’m looking to experience that final bliss-out quite yet. For now, I’ll take it in small chunks when I can get it and enjoy it for what it is. Living.