Life moves in never ending cycles; shrinking and compressing, releasing and expanding. Like the tides of the ocean. These phases, like the tides, are natural in our lives as well.
There is courage in releasing your grip on the beach and allow yourself to recede with the low tide. Courage in feeling the compression of being pulled into the vast, deep, ocean. Courage in surrendering to what you cannot control.
There is courage with riding the breaking waves in, thrusting yourself forward on to land, as the tide rises and reaches as far as it can inland. Courage in exploration. Courage in expanding and stretching limits.
Each cycle offers us the choice to surrender or to resist; it takes courage to surrender. To willingly let go of stable ground to be tumbling in the sea of unknowns. Courage to be willing to leave the depths of the ocean to reach for the sky, the land, the stars. It takes courage to follow your intuition and wait for the right current to ride.
If we resist life tides, we risk separating ourselves from our connections to others. We risk separating ourselves from the natural flow of our tides, creating rifts within ourselves. We risk living so much smaller than had we surrendered, adapted, and evolved.