Riptides
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Is it me, or are people talking about riptides more than they used to? I remember hearing about them as a child from time to time, but now it’s as if they’ve become a regular occurrence.
I remember my mother pulling me aside once and teaching me what to do if I ever found myself in a riptide. “Don’t try and fight it,” she said. “You’ll wear yourself out if you do and not be able to get back to shore. Instead, go with the current. Then swim off to the side where you’ll then be able to swim to shore.”
I have never needed to use her instructions, but I now see they could have come in handy many other times in my life.
Like most people, I’ve found myself in troubled waters. I’ve felt strong currents pushing me out to sea, and I’ve tried to fight them. I used all my strength to push against the tides only to wear myself out and drown. How much better it would have been had I accepted the tide and waited for a time when I could swim off to the side and made my way home.
Over the years, I’ve seen I am not alone.
I remembered my mother’s lesson when I heard a woman come back into the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous having tried to control her drinking to horrible consequences.
I saw the wisdom of her instructions when a married couple I knew had a significant argument about one of their children and each was convinced they were right, only to say things and fight the current in ways that left their marriage unable to recover.
I wish I could have passed along her advice to a church member who was asked to serve on its vestry. The church claimed to want to grow and change, but the currents said otherwise. At first, he tried to swim against the current, determined to make a difference, but he quickly exhausted himself and nearly drowned.
Riptides come in all shapes and sizes. Like my mother said, we need to not fight them but accept them and swim off to the side so we can find our way back to shore.