Choices

It has been estimated by the NOAA that the coastline of the United States comprises some 95,471 miles. Water abounds. But only within reach of a few of us.

Cresting Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica recently, my entire windshield was suddenly filled with a view of the Pacific Ocean. For the lion's share of my life, I have lived close enough to the edge of the land that this doesn't strike me as peculiar. But the abrupt disappearance of terra firma IS a jarring concept. Deep water is closer than we realize. 

Every day provides an opportunity to right the ship, to make better choices, to carve a new path. But this realization is rarely actualized because letting go of old patterns and comfortable environs keeps most of us safely on dry land. We search the horizon, but only with our eyes, even though the sea is so tantalizingly close.

What would it take, I wonder, to instead choose the waves?

"In order to find a new land, you must lose sight of the shore." - Sara Blakely