Giant Crashing Wave :: I’m in the midst of completing a professional coaching certification (which I am very excited about!). The focus of the class has recently switched to working with clients and building more advanced coaching skills and techniques. It’s challenging, but I’m loving this practical part of class and it’s easy to talk about it. It makes sense that we’d be learning and practicing these things!

But, prior to this part of class we spent months working on ourselves, articulating our values and defining who we are at our core or “essence”. This part of the process invaluable and at times fun, but was not always so easy to talk about without sounding loony. Some of the lingo drove me a little crazy and garnered a few eye rolls, but I’ve learned that when my eyes start to roll there’s a choice at hand – keep them rolling, disengage and find contentment in “this is stupid and not for me” OR I can lean in and give it a shot, whatever it is and the truth is when I stop rolling my eyes I usually learn or experience something pretty spectacular.

One of the exercises in our “Authentic Presence” class(do you see why I may have rolled my eyes?) was to write a nature story where we imagined ourselves outdoors noticing all the elements and picking one that captured our attention. Then, we had to write a story describing what it was like to be that object using first person “I” voice. I rolled my eyes, took a big breath, stopped thinking and went to town on the assignment writing down the story as it came to mind. Here it is, unedited (and accompanied by a photo of a wave that I happened to capture at the right moment when I was in Portugal earlier this year. How I miss those days I spent gazing at beautiful coastlines and waves!) —

I am the crazy giant reckless waves – crashing into rocks and splashing in the air. I have no fear. I am not afraid to be wild and crazy or to take big leaps and risks. Being of one of these beautiful waves is fun. I feel free and big. I am impressed with myself sometimes by how high my water splashes when I crash into something. Sometimes I’m surprised at my own strength and by how powerful I feel. I smile at people who watch me from the beach – so in awe of this power and freedom that I am demonstrating. And, I am in awe too with how wonderful it feels to be a wave and with how much I’m laughing and playing while simultaneously feeling and being such a strong reckless force in this little corner of the world. Maybe the most incredible part of being this wave is that while I’m playing in my little corner of the world I’m also deeply, literally physically connected to the ocean and the rest of the world – part of something bigger than I can really comprehend.