The word “surrender” comes up a lot in recovery literature, not to mention life. Frankly, it’s always been a difficult concept for me to grasp. I mean, we don’t expect the president to explain the concept of “surrender” to the Army — or a football coach to his players at half time. Why should it be any different for each of our individual journeys?  Aren’t we, after all, individual players on that big, football team of life?  I just couldn’t seem to get it.

That was, until last week.

I found myself surfing near the Santa Monica pier, out further than I normally swim, mostly to escape the seaweed. Despite the fact that the friendly pro-am surfer dudes at Mollusk had strongly recommended I buy fins, I found myself flapping around without them, making my swimming much more difficult. I knew I should have bought them.

It wasn’t long until I realized I could no longer feel the sand underneath my feet, and feeling a momentary sense of panic, I decided to swim back to shore. But, that’s exactly what you’ve done before, I thought to myself.

It was the first time surfing that I admitted to myself that I actually felt … afraid. 

Getting pummeled by wind and waves teaches me about awareness and perseverance.

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You won’t believe this, on my first day surfing, two dolphins dance with me in the water.

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