I love to swim in the ocean when it's calm. I don't like being pounded by the waves so I learned to move out past the breakers and swim around in the gentle part of the ocean. If a wave does come along, I've learned to dive beneath its crest and avoid the turbulence.

One day I was at the beach with a friend. She didn't swim and was reluctant to go out much more than knee-deep in the water. Where we stood the waves were in full force, crashing into the shore, and us! I'm not very tall and some of those waves were pretty big. So every now and then the waves would knock me down and roll me around a little. It was exciting, of course, but also tiring and sometimes even a little painful.

I knew that all we had to do was go out a little further into the water, a little over waist-deep, and all the turbulence would be behind us. I urged her to come with me, just few feet further out where the water was calm.

This physical experience of the ocean and the waves also had a more symbolic meaning. At that time I happened to be experiencing a great deal of turbulence in my life. I could feel the waves crashing in on me and it seemed all I could do was to fight to stand upright.

In that place of turbulence we are knocked down and tumbled around. We hesitate, in fear and uncertainty, to move out in faith, to follow our guidance, our intuition. After all, it gets pretty deep out there and the ocean is vast. But if we move just a little further out, we find that the turbulence falls behind us and what is in front of us is peaceful, and even joyous! We can splash around and have fun, feeling the water all around us, gently supporting us.

A few days later when I was in meditation, I was visited by a spirit dolphin. “I'd like to show you something,” it said, and we went to the ocean together. I could see myself as I was that day at the beach with my friend.

“You were so pleased with yourself that you knew that you could enjoy the water more by moving past the waves. But what I see is that you made sure that you could always touch bottom. You never went out over your head.”

“Well, of course not!” I said.

“You are still playing in the shallows. There is so much more here for you to discover and enjoy.”

I saw again how I tried to encourage my friend to come with me that day – out a little further. I knew she would be safe and perhaps have more fun, but I also respected her choice to stay where she was. Now this dolphin spirit was playing that same role for me.

“Only out a little further. There's nothing to be afraid of. I'll be there to watch and help you. You'll like it, I promise.” My words to her were being said now, to me.

“Maybe next time,” I said, just as she had answered me.

(Excerpted from my book: Collected Works: a book for the Eclectic Spirit.)