Highs and Lows

A "wrack line" is the line you often see along a beach where the last high tide has deposited shells, seaweed, items that were either dumped or fell off boats, and other assorted debris. The word wrack comes from the same word we get our English word "wreck" from. Sometimes this line is surprisingly high; a storm at sea drove waves all the way up to the sea oats while we were at the beach, much higher than I had ever seen this line.  But usually the line changes with the regular change of the tides. Never one to shy away from a good metaphor, I couldn't help but think of the correlation between wrack lines at the seashore and the patterns inherent in our lives.

Most of us have highs and lows. Granted some of us are more inclined to have "higher highs" and "lower lows" than others, but we all experience the inevitable ebb and flow of good times and not-so-good times in our lives. I don't know about you, but I can recall some incredibly high highs and some dismally low lows in my own brief time on the planet.

The good news is, the lows - when it comes to wrack lines - are always quickly washed away. The highs, on the other hand, often remain with you for a long, long time (until the next big storm comes through to top it). The bad news is, far too many of us waste our lives staring at and sifting through the last big "high" wrack line, often at the expense of living life in the here and now. Others of us, of course, waste time moaning and groaning about how bad things are right now at this very moment in our life, as if we are unaware that in a matter of hours the tide is going to come in and wash away that "low" wrack line.

Here's my point (yes, there is a point to this). 99.9% of life is lived in the ebb and flow of these highs and lows. The actual low and high points are but fleeting moments. Since we spend most of our time in the middle, let's make the most of what we have then - in the moment - rather than always waiting for, or looking back at, some other time. Today might be a good day to start doing just that.