Colleague and friend David Crow put it best, this move has me going from corporate web surfing across the world to “real surfing” and ironically as I searched the interwebs for the perfect picture to represent just that, I found this. Conversely, if Microsoft branded surfboards and wanted to sponsor my surfboard for this endeavor, I would be more than happy to replace this picture with that one & surf the coast on it with pride.
Now, this move from one surfing to another, although sounds fairly similar, I’ve isolated a few differences. The benefits of corporate web surfing are abundant in that you never really have to leave your desk, you can essentially surf the world at the comfort of your own home and enjoy the sights of the sea on your screen saver. Where “real surfing” as Jack Johnson so elegantly demonstrates in his music video for “You and Your Heart”, comes associated with dangers leading to dangerously healthy muscular tone.
Albeit, I welcome the challenge the invariable way of life I’ve grown accustomed to my entire life. If the world is my oyster, why am I only swimming in my backyard? The world’s a stage and yet I re-enact the same play over and over again, the one where I know that I will wake up, likely head to work, face a few rough patches leading to working late, head home, grab dinner on the way, check a few emails, walk the dog, check a few emails again, check Facebook/Twitter, watch some TV and then head to bed. Rinse and repeat.
Where’s the active lifestyle? </Insert gym time here>
Where’s the social interaction? </Insert coffee/dinner dates here>
Where’s the relaxing time? </Insert vacation here>
All of which are temporary instantaneous solutions to a much needed lifestyle change. For a short period, I will feel relived, productive, relaxed – then the cycle of spiritual destruction happens again. Kind of like that marketing campaign, with a band-aid solution to get you through to meet your metrics for the year and to get your compensation. In the end, you haven’t fixed a problem it’s still there, just underneath a pretentious solution to make it through to the next milestone until it occurs again. But, it’s still there.
I’m going to stop covering it up. I am going to search crevices deep and wide to find exactly what lies beneath to uncover the internal source of happiness, no matter the cost. I am transitioning from a life and career that are socially accepted and expected successful milestones in this part of my life to one that possess notions of uncertainty, unconventionality all of which my soul urges in hunger for in order to define this thing I call, life.
Word cloud generated by Wordle
But why surfing?
Because of this experience that has allowed me to realize the dynamic power when the human vessel is connected to the strength of our minds. Yet we treat our entire beings everyday like garbage cans – filling it with junk. Letting it overflow until we realize we need to empty it but then it’s too late. It’s attracted the skunks, the raccoons, the maggots that have rotten right over the canister becoming one. It is with this gory amplification needed to demonstrate that we treat our bodies & minds the same way, defining both junk in the foods we eat and the negative interactions that infiltrate our minds. It is for this reason, I am prioritizing the one life, the one body given to me, to a lifestyle that will equally harness the gifts we’ve been given inside & outside our souls to grant myself the ability to live my life in the fullness I aspire to.
And what that, I leave you with Matisyahu’s inspirational, One Day.
