Currents

When looking for my future, I want a sign, directions, or path – something specific and tangible.  I want a map to show me an “X” for where I am and another “X” for where I should end up.  A big plus would be all the little footprints marking the path I should take to achieve success.  Unfortunately, life is not a kiosk at the mall pointing out all the finite choices, destinations, and steps I need to take to complete the journey.

Recently I was walking along the ocean trying to determine my next steps, once again asking (actually begging) God for direction to my life.  What I got was a breeze in my face with the particular smell of ocean that permeated my being, the not-so-gentle push and pull of a choppy tide tugging at my feet, and a vision of clouds billowing and swirling across the sky.  My senses were on overload.  Yet my brain focused only on one word – currents.

There were currents flowing all around me.  The ocean has deep dimensional currents which are providing  food chains for untolled and unseen life, directing weather patterns which provide our own food supply, and creating pathways of navigation for commerce and exploration.  The wind doesn’t always blow where it will, but where it must.  Its currents carry out on land the orders of the deep.  Wafting fragrances, particles, and gaseous elements of life are all evidence of currents flowing over and around this planet.  One other current, our orbit within space gives us the days, nights, and seasons within which all other currents are subsumed.

I live and move and have my being in the currents of this small section of our universe.  I cannot escape their power.  Yet I must stand back far enough from the effects they bring about to become aware of the patterns created through their fluctuation and change.  This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “current events.”  How can I ask for direction to my life without paying and praying closer attention to the currents eddying, buffeting, and gentling the world and all the creatures therein?  When I am wrapped up in watching what we typically classify as current events, I fail to see the spaces where the dots are connected to form the current in which I need to be totally present.    The visceral and spiritual awareness of currents is the answer God gave me by the sea.