Surf’s Up Baby!

I love the ocean so much! Besides sitting with Jesus in the Adoration chapel and  serving at Kalighat (Mother Teresa’s Home for the Dying in Kolkata, India) the ocean is my favorite place to be. California is my favorite!

Surfing, body surfing and swimming in the ocean is my idea of an amazing day! Along with margaritas on the deck of course!

I want to show you something. This is one of my favorite pictures in the world. This is my dad and I at the beach, when I was a little girl. He taught me to swim at the ocean and we spent a lot of time there. Afterwards he would take us out to ice cream and I would always get my favorite – mint chocolate chip. And those are some of my favorite memories in the world (and I’m tearing up right now, because they are so beautiful and precious to me).

Isn’t my bathing suit cute?! It’s okay, I know it’s not. What was my mother thinking?

There is something about the vastness of the ocean that leaves me breathless. If I’m not in the water riding the waves, I love to just sit on the shore and watch the waves break and see the white foam that forms as they crash, it’s magnificent.

Each wave is orchestrated to be a certain size and break at a given time, similar to the way in which God designed us. Each one of us is unique and comparing yourself to others is not healthy. You are you, and what our society needs is to embrace this fact, for only then will true and authentic healing begin to take shape.

You aren’t the width of your waist or the number you see on the scale. You aren’t your hair and skin color. You aren’t your shoe size or lipstick shade. You are not the number of miles you can run or sit-ups you can do. You aren’t the number you see in your jeans or the number of calories you consume at lunch.

What you are radiates from the beauty of your soul. You are beautiful because you are compassionate. You are beautiful because you love passionately, have a gentle spirit and giving heart. You are beautiful because you find your worth in God the Father. You are beautiful because you embrace the challenge to be an authentic woman. And that my friends is beauty.

So, as this weeks challenge, MIHI would like to challenge you to NOT compare yourself to the woman next to you. YOU ARE YOU! Embrace this beautiful reality with your heart, and then you will begin to see and feel true beauty. Just like the waves in the ocean, you are unique.

So, let’s do this together, you and I, let’s ride the waves of life. And when one crashes in your face and knocks you down, don’t stay down. Rise from the depths of the ocean and seek beauty in the ambiguity of life, in love, failures, loss and sadness. The sooner you start doing this, the sooner you will begin to cultivate a sense of peace.

Surf’s up baby…let’s ride some waves!