It's all in the hands

Overheard at this mornings early morning surf...."It's all in the hands, one where you have been the other pointed where you are going..." If you drop one hand and forget where you have been you lose balance, but if you drop your lead hand, you lose the hand that points where you are going. In surfing, and in life, this balance is critical. The past must not weigh us down, but serve instead as a reminder of where we have come from. The future is there too, ripe for the taking, and with some direction we will hopefully end up there eventually. In the middle though is the part that truly matters, that moment where you glide down the face of the wave, one hand back to where you were the other pointed to where you are going, but the body transfixed in that moment. The key it seems then is embracing that ever changing moment, aware of past and future but truly in the present. This is nothing new, and a central tenant of most Buddhist philosophy, but being present is one of the hardest tasks there is, and if I can exist there, if only for a moment, I feel better for it.