Can You Walk On Water?

As someone who surfs, I understand what it might feel like to actually walk on water. When you catch a wave, its natural momentum and energy simply carries you. It’s a radical leap of faith to trust that the ocean’s life force will propel you with its incredible power. I’ve never experienced anything like it in any other dimension of my life, which is why I continue to surf. It is truly a spiritual experience to feel held by the Universe.

Yet when you catch a wave you can’t hesitate. Once you decide to commit to riding it, you need to have a clean pop up. If you don’t, you will falter and potentially wipe out or pearl.

I wonder why this concept is so hard to grasp in our day to day lives.

Lately, I’ve been doing a considerable amount of inner faltering. As I feel a force compelling and propelling me to “walk on water” – to take risks, to trust and to simply step out, I find myself doing so and then suddenly freaking out. When I realize I’m actually walking on water, moving forward in my life and stepping out in areas where I feel called, I then second guess myself. “I can’t do this. It’s too much. I’ll get swallowed up by it all. I’ll drown in the chaos and demands of this unknown sea I’m trying to cross.” And when I listen to the skeptics around me who are bogged down with their own fears and projections, the chatter in my head intensifies even more.

Jesus asked Peter to walk on water. When he believed he could, he did. When he realized he was, he questioned the spark of Divinity within him and collapsed into the water.

Peter needed to look at Jesus. Not at his feet or the water or the wind or the skeptics.

You might as well call me Peter (or Petra).

“You of little faith? Why did you doubt?”

Can and do you walk on water? What makes you falter and what keeps you going? And what is your experience of stepping out onto the sea?

May The Force Be With You

The other day, while encountering an irritating, nonsense situation that I should have been able to brush off as nothing, I found myself sucking in my breath and then blocking it. Instead of taking in a full breath and then exhaling it, I did the exact opposite. I restricted the flow of my breath. And as I did, I got increasingly uptight, pissy and filled with a sense of entitlement. Of course this did nothing to change the situation.

Lately I’ve been aware that I restrict my breath throughout much of the day. Of course I’m alive, so I’m automatically breathing, but I am not doing so consciously, nor am I allowing my breath’s full flow. Quite frankly, this is blocking the Force.

This is not a new pattern for me. When I first was exposed to body oriented practices such as yoga and meditation, I was astonished to discover that if I breathed more deeply, emotions flooded through me like a damn that had burst. Everything I had repressed and pushed down over the years unleashed when I did start fully breathing again. And so I realized that breath was essential to the healing process and I made it a priority.

But I have taken my breathing for granted. No longer in need of releasing as much pent up emotion, I’ve stopped paying attention. But breathing is also connected to our vitality; to our ability to move throughout the day efficiently and in a present joyful manner. It is also a conduit to the Divine.

I know Darth Vader engages in that stalker type breathing, but for the most part, throughout time and cultures, the word for breath has also been associated with spirit and wind. Our breath sustains and nourishes us if we tap into it and use it effectively.

Take it in and may the Force be with you.