Fate and Manifestation: Surfing Life Part 1
Do we know how to surf life? And as we do this, how do we live between the tension of fate and what we manifest for ourselves?
I was recently visiting Steamboat for a weekend getaway, and while walking along the river came across a growing phenomenon of recent years, a group of people surfing the river. I say ‘recent years,’ because when I was a white water guide the only thing on the rivers were rafts and kayaks. Thus, if one said ‘surfing,’ the immediate association would be ‘ocean,’ but now we have discovered we can surf rivers as well. This is done by finding a hydraulic jump where the water’s current curls back on itself and forms a wave. As a white water guide, this jump formed the tongue I would shoot for, the main force of the current flowed there and created a great ride for the clientele I was taking down the river. The wave is the reason people got soaked as we hit the rapid. The boat would be forced upward on the jump, and the larger the wave the more of it cascaded down on you. There were times a wave was so big it smashed me in the back of a 16 or 18 foot boat.
In Steamboat, I was observing a much smaller wave, yet watched people on various sizes of boards, use the eddy on the edge of the current (a back flow of current heading upriver) to maneuver into position, shoot out onto the tongue of the current, and if they were fortunate (and/or skilled) stand up on their board and surf the wave. It was great fun. Some never maneuvered into the current successfully and were just taken back down river, others might stand for a brief moment and topple to the side, but others slide smoothly onto the jump and used the wave to stall and then stand on their board and surf.
It was fun to just stand and watch various attempts to surf. Seeing the grins on those who managed to surf and listening to the hoots of their friends cheering them on from the side fueled a vicarious joy. As we observed this my partner and I began to reflect on what a great metaphor this was for life.
The river, like life, was a constantly changing and undulating force. It was never still, never the same, and always moving. Hundreds of gallons of water cascading beneath with a force strong enough to break bones and crush. Dangerous but also delightful when respected for what it was.
The surfers, had to constantly adjust from large to small movements in order to stay afloat. If they were good there was a moment of time where all they had accomplished put then in a perfect position and they were suspended in stillness, a silence even, on their board. If they were adventurous and playful they could move forward and back on their boards, crouch, etc. just like you observe of skilled surfers on the ocean.
Various themes came to mind as we observed all this. Primary among them though were the ideas of fate and manifestation. Fate, an event beyond a person’s control, is part of everyone’s life. We possess no control over the family we are born into, the country, the SES of our family, our natural intelligence or athletic ability, genetic makeup (apart from epigenetic changes), other’s choices, etc. You get the point. Think of fate as debris coming down the river, seen or unseen it could impact a surfer, but it’s a factor out of their control. A similar image regarding fate might be a flash flood, lightning, etc.
Manifestation, on the other hand, is anything we can create for ourselves. Manifestation is a word regularly used now to speak of what we bring into existence for ourselves. It denotes power, the power we have to create and make something happen. This is also present in the river surfing metaphor. The river has its power, the surfer has theirs. Consider someone who tries once, falls off their board and never tries again. They are manifesting a future for themselves of never becoming a good river surfer. Several of the surfers had clearly practiced enough that they had already manifested varying levels of ability to accomplish these necessary elements: reading the river’s current, picking a place to enter the current, knowing when and where to stand, learning how to stand, learning how to balance and move on their board to either remain standing (novice) or play in the current, learning how to escape the current when they fall or take a break, and to try again. Manifestation is just as real as fate. Effort or lack of effort will always bring different results. Manifestation is all about learning, growth, and bringing into existence that which was not previously present.
Logs and flash floods are real, just as our efforts are real. We are all on a spectrum of what we believe regarding fate and manifestation, but both of these elements are present in everyone’s life. Consider Christopher Reeve as an example. The former actor who played Superman. He was involved in a riding accident that left him completely paralyzed below his shoulders, yet he manifested for himself things no one ever expected him to accomplish, for example breathing on his own again for periods of time without a ventilator. Crazy things that never happen for someone in his condition, Reeve manifested for himself through directing his energy toward efforts and goals.
So… what do you want to manifest for yourself? What has been the fate of your life? How do you, in spite of how fate has impacted you, want to create something out of nothing? Nothing that is, except your own beauty and the power to create.
