A few months ago, I vacationed at Juniper Beach Florida with my husband.  While there we went to the beach every free moment we had.  Standing on the beach one morning watching the tide come in, I was reminded of how events in our lives come and go with such grace and ease, but sometimes with extreme force, enough to knock us down and pull us under.  Every time I have gone to the beach in my life, I have felt so much power, so much life force coming from the Goddess Yemaya that I just stand there look at the waves rolling in and am in utter awe of it all. 

Looking out at the beach I was reminded of a time in back in 2003 that would change my life forever.  I was living in Milnerton, South Africa. [A suburb of Cape Town]  I had given away all of my worldly possessions and moved my two children and myself half way across the world to create a better life for us there.  After three months of trying to make it work, it wasn't.  I felt like a failure!   Exhausted, beat down, and needing a break I brought the boys to the ocean so they could play and I could collect my thoughts.  This was one of the most challenging times in my life; I truly thought things would be different, but it wasn’t.  The day was cool and over cast, the water was rough and gray.  I sat watching my kids, who were about three and six at the time, playing in the water.  They would walk just where the water met the land and wait for it to go over there ankles and then run and squeal with laughter.  I remember thinking to myself how scary it is to be a parent sometimes, so much responsibility it is to raise a child to be the next generation of adults.  Hopefully they would turn out to be kind, loving, compassionate, caring, empathetic, respectful, passionate, empowered, confident, etc….  I remember thinking what a gloomy day it was and how rough the surf looked and how raw everything seemed.    

The boys playing on the beach in South Africa on that very day!

And then I saw something that would change my life forever.  I saw a seal playing in the water, twisting and turning, jumping and rolling.  The rough waters served as a source of fun for this beloved creature.  Then I looked at my kids and saw their amusement with the waves tumbling in.  A saying my Mom said quite a lot as a child “Fun is an attitude, not an activity.” rang loudly in my mind.   Then, I felt it… a distinct shift in my energy; that “ah ha moment.”  I was no longer going to be swept away by the currents of life.  Instead of trying to swim against the currents of life, I would just “Be” in the waters, or better yet, play in the waters.  No matter what the sky looked like, no matter how hard the waves came in, I would allow my body to go with the current and see where it took me.  That day was the day I decided to move back to the United States to turn my life around and finally start living for me and my Spirit!   That is the day I found my “Yay!”

This is the very seal that changed my life!

On our last full day in Juniper Beach, I waded out about knee deep into the water, bent over and put my hands in the water.   I took a deep breath and called Yemaya, the Goddess of the Great Waters.  I found my center and secured my footing under me.  With each wave that came in, I tried to focus on keeping my center and keeping my footing secure.  I was doing great at first, but then I started to see the waves coming in three or four back… they looked so big, as if they would knock me over.  I would turn and run, only to look back and see that they would fizzle out when they got to where I was standing.  Again, I would dip my arms in the water standing knee high waiting again…over and over again; I would get knocked around, unable to keep my balance and my center.  Frustrated, I started to just look at the wave right in front of me, not the ones three or four waves’ back.  When I did that, I was easily able to keep my center and my focus.  I was reminded of that time in South Africa I had watched the seal in the rough waters, then it hit me, life is like this; when we focus on things we “think” will happen in the future, we can freak out and run and miss out on some fun times.  What we really should do is to stand firm in our truth and only focus on the situation at hand, the present moment and really allow our mind to stay fully present, life can throw us waves (events) of any size and we can still come out okay.  I was called to grab three shells during this ritual that I did and I keep those shells on my altar next to my bed.  They remind me that no matter what happens in life, if I just focus on the present, everything will always be okay.

The seal of change.


The boys on that faithful day!  Yay!!! : )

The only difference between a good day and a bad day is your attitude. ~Dennis S. Brown