I am so excited for this week!  I’m heading to California with Max to visit family, and I can’t wait to plop down on the beach and play in the ocean! As I write this, I’m actually looking at an ocean scene which I loaded as the backdrop to my Gmail page.

I love the water!  Yet strangely, I have recurring dreams about being in the ocean, trying to get out from under huge waves that threaten to take me down.

Okay, so this may sound “out there”, but I was listening to a Zig Ziglar interview this morning, and had a realization.  Watch this first, and then I’ll continue.

What struck me was his quote, “You don’t drown by falling in the water, you drown if you stay there.”

That really resonated with me. I love that he states this with a big grin, as if to say, “Look my friend, here’s your situation, now swim like heck and get out of it!”.

So it occurs to me that these dreams about being “under the wave”, are metaphors for when I’m faced with a tough situation.  Maybe I’m feeling overwhelmed by everything on my plate.  Maybe it’s when I’m in conflict with another person, or trying to figure out a parenting snafu.  I’ve never really stopped to see what’s going on in my life when I have these dreams, but it appears they come up when I’m trying to “sort it all out”.

So here’s the realization…I always get out from under the wave.  I never drown.  And so it is in my life.

How many times have you felt you were “under the wave”?  You have all experienced situations that seems unmanageable, unfair or downright scary.  Yet you’re all still here, right?  You survive. You have the resources to swim out from underneath it all, and come out alive.

So as Ziglar is saying, find the strength, courage, determination and skill to rise up and overcome whatever it is that’s keeping you trapped.  Letting the wave win is not an option!  Especially when you know that your dreams are much bigger than the 20-foot wave that threatens to bring you down.  The life you envision, is actually your life-saver.

So I finally got it.

You know why I never drown in my dreams?  Because I see all the amazing things that await me on the shore.  Now SWIM!