Surfing Without a Leash

A Great article I read on Wetsand.com

To my surprise, I have recently discovered what I love best about surfing, which is that surfing supplies me with endless metaphors for just about everything in my life! When I am facing a tough situation, I find myself saying, “I feel like I’m paddling into a 20 foot wave”, or when really frustrated with someone or something and wanting to give up, it’s “I can’t just paddle in”, or when I’m stressed and out of balance, “I’ve just got to stay in trim or make it through this section.” It’s wonderful to be able to find in surfing a variety of metaphors that can express so precisely and artfully whatever I am facing or experiencing in my life.

Lately, I am obsessed with the metaphor of surfing without a leash. I have found myself frequently saying in conversations - “I feel like I’m surfing without a leash!” This accurately reflects the flavor of my life right now. Both of my sons have recently gone off to college, I have the proverbial empty nest, with that accompanying sense of emptiness and loss of what once gave me great purpose and activity in my life - parenting. I also have my own business in a very unpredictable economy. And no matter who is on the receiving end of my “surfing without a leash” exclamation, surfers and non-surfers alike, they nod their heads and seem to intuitively understand what I am saying. So, I have begun to seriously contemplate both the metaphor and reality of “surfing without a leash.”

This is after all a surf site, so let me start with the reality of surfing without a leash.... Read the rest here.