The Zen Snorkeler

Many years ago we laughed at a line from a movie that said that Mormons could be Buddhist too.  Over the years I've come to see that there is a lot of wisdom in Buddhism that I could benefit from.

The first day Jenna and I went snorkeling we got in the water, went to the right, and almost immediately saw a turtle!  What were the odds?!?  (I mean they weren't terrible because of where we were, but it was still a surprise.)  After we snorkeled for a while we got out, had a snack, and warmed back up.  Then when we got in again and went to the left, we saw even more turtles!  So awesome.

The next morning we got up and went to a different snorkel spot.  (Dumps, henceforth to be referred to as Konahena to pay tribute to it's beauty!) I knew that we would see a lot more fish there since it was part of the marine preserve, but I also knew that if we were set on seeing turtles, all of the fish in the world wouldn't be satisfying.  So I told Jenna before we started that we needed to be a little Zen about our snorkeling, and appreciate whatever we saw each time rather than deciding that we weren't going to enjoy it unless we saw something specific.  (Meaning turtles, of course.) She agreed with me that it would be smart to think about it like that. 

Happily, we saw turtles most of the times we were snorkeling.  But we were also able to enjoy the other things because we had decided that we were going to be happy with whatever happened.

Whatever we saw was going to be amazing, which I think is a pretty good way to live.

What are you dragging behind you?

Jenna and I just got back from her senior trip in Maui.  Turns out when I'm snorkeling I have a lot of time to think deep thoughts!

Jenna and I did something that Russ and I had enjoyed doing last time we were in Maui.  We walked to Ahihi Cove from the Konahena (Dumps) parking lot wearing our water shoes and carrying fins.  Then at Ahihi Cove we put the water shoes in the mesh bag, put on our fins, and we snorkeled back to Konahena from Ahihi.  I put the drawstring of the mesh bag over my head & shoulder and snorkeled with it and could almost not tell I had it with me.  

About 15 years ago we went to the Big Island with two other couples.  One day we rented kayaks and kayaked across Kealakekua Bay to snorkel at the Captain Cook monument.  (The Big Island doesn't have as many "from the shore" snorkel spots as Maui does.) One of the couples pulled a boogie board behind them to use while snorkeling.  We were all kayaking along, and then we realized that two of us were FAR ahead of the third couple.  At first we couldn't figure out why the third couple was having a harder time, and then we realized that it was the boogie board slowing them down.  Sure enough, once they held the boogie board they started moving faster.

As I snorkeled out of Ahihi Cove with Jenna that day I marveled at how easy it was to tow the bag with the shoes along with me.  I don't think I would have predicted that.  It was completely worth doing, since having the shoes with us meant that we could have a different and unique snorkel experience.  But I also thought about how I wouldn't have guessed that a boogie board (which floats on it's own) would exert such drag on a kayak that day at Keakalekua Bay.  

The thought came to me that in life it's important to pay attention to what things are weighing us down and/or holding us back.  Sometimes things that we think are unimportant or even positive might actually be negative.  And things that might at first glance seem like they'd have a negative effect might help us and nor be negative at all.  Definitelly something to think about...