I recently went on vacation to Oregon and got to see the Ocean for the first time, up close and personal. I was gone from the stresses and big decisions in my life for a week, over this time I had a lot of time to just think and let go. The Ocean is the most wonderful, scariest thing I've ever seen. As you stand in it and let the waves crash against your toes you feel calm and at peace, but then you listen and hear the roar of the waves crashing and it gets a little intimidating. When you really think about it the Ocean is a lot like a person. People can be beautiful and calming, but then you open up to them, stand in them, and they can be the complete opposite. My step mom was standing in the water when a huge wave hit her up to the chest and almost knocked her over, it scared her but she still kept standing in the water because she liked the way it felt when the waves would hit her toes. People can hold you, wrap you up in some kind of warm welcoming and then knock you over, but you'll still stand in them because of the feeling, the warm welcoming. When does standing in something become unbearable? For me, it was when the sun went down. I could hear the waves crashing against rocks and the shore, but I couldn't see where the waves were at or the beauty of them. It scared me. I couldn't get to close without feeling nervous or on edge, so I stood back where the water no longer hit my toes and just listened. I think the same happens with people. You no longer stand in their warm welcoming once the lights are off and that person is exposed. There's nothing hiding them, no beauty, just their noise. The Ocean felt louder with the sun gone. It rang in my ears and touched my heart with a feeling of uneasiness. Yes, it was beautiful still but it didn't have the same beauty as it did when the light hit the water and you could watch the waves coming up to meet your toes. People can still be beautiful when there's nothing hiding them, but its that darkness that exposes who they really are. Without the light the Ocean is as scary as it sounds. When it comes to people, without their shell they are who they are. There's nothing there but what you really hear. There's no pretending. They can be mean and you see them for just that. There's not the same beauty you saw in them before. They are vulnerable and standing in them becomes hard. You become scared. There's no more warm welcoming, just a loud roar of what they really feel, and that's when, like me, you end up standing back, with your toes no longer in the water, and your ears wide open, listening.
