Looking at the waves

Looking at the waves, lapping at the shore, reminds me of man’s condition in which one needlessly suffers from the many I’s. Parts of us cling and identify with what has happened and cannot let go of the past. An Aesop fable captures the flavor of this conundrum:

“A certain man was sitting on the beach counting the waves as they broke against the shore. When he lost count of the waves he got angry and frustrated. A sly fox then approached the man and said, 'Good sir, what is the point of getting angry about the waves that have already gone by? You need to just put them out of your mind and pick up counting again where you left off.’”

These groups of I’s haunt us daily, rehearsing endlessly how some interaction could have gone differently yesterday. Why did I say that? I should have said so and so? When they did this, I should have done that? Work on oneself revolves around the idea that the present moment is all that truly exists. Old groups of I’s need to be dismissed just as one wave crashes upon the next one - just let them go. That freedom is the freedom that the present moment gives us. It’s not avoiding the past. It’s acknowledging its passage.