don't stop paddling

Today, I paddled out into the Portuguese surf, taking wave after wave on the head while not seeming to get any closer to beyond the whitewater.

I was paddling like mad, the goal being to make it over the waves before they broke and to reach the relatively calm water out in the bay at Ribeira Das Ilhas, but couldn't seem to make it beyond the flat, already broken but surprisingly powerful waves that would wash me backwards every time they confronted me.

Sometimes this happens. We put a lot of effort into our projects, they seem to get no closer to completion and we begin to despair of the whole enterprise.

I’m not a good surfer, although I have improved. I am though, a pretty good paddler.

I made it out the back, even managing to grab some respite sat on my board, surveying the shore in the misty afternoon sunshine, considering how lucky I was. Then the big waves started rolling in, the current picked up and survival became the aim of the aim. There’s nothing like light light fear to sharpen the mind and rouse you from a reverie.

A lot of the projects I’ve been working on have been stuck in a kind of hinterland, a pointless seeming purgatory created by waiting on others or to be honest, waiting for arbitrary future points I’d set myself and watch go by.

To avoid procrastinating in the latter manner I’d advocate realising there is no perfect time to do anything. That’s something I’m very slowly learning to get over.

With the first one, it’s hard to help you. All I can say is paddle hard and don’t give up and you’ll get out the back into the glorious sunshine. You might then find that things move faster and bigger than you thought they would and you now have to paddle for your life.

But it’ll be worth it to feel that moment of warmth on your face.