Returning to What I Love for 1st Time in 11 Months

Goodbye April....Hello May.

Something quite significant happened to me this week.

Something that I have been looking forward to for quite some time. I went surfing. The Last Day of April 2013, I climbed into my 4/3, and grabbed my 9'0" Semper Fi and with my son Max riding shotgun, we drove down the street to go surfing.

For the record, I have been out of the water since June 2012 due to some personal health issues. And while the Doctors at MGH have pleaded with me not to surf, I had to listen to that inner voice we all have and say..."The hell with that. I'm going surfing!" And I did.

Besides, how can I justify me walking around saying to everyone that "surfing heals all wounds" and not adhere to that mantra?
I'll tell you, I can't. So, I made the call to surf. And it was the right call. Because although I did not exactly light up the line-up, I did manage to scratch into a few decent chest high waves and actually make a section or two.

My son Max was very encouraging. In fact, he might of been too encouraging. And the more I think about it, he was yelling at me "Just go Dad! Stop thinking about it and GO!!!". I had to laugh. I mean here's this now adult man, yelling at me, to take off on every set wave that came through, apparently forgetting that it was "me" who taught him how to surf.

[Photo 1] Here we are before we paddled out.

Was I nervous? A little bit. Not much though. Like I said, it was something that I was looking forward to since June of 2012.
What is that 11 months? That's a long time. There was NO way I was going to let a whole year go by without surfing.

And the irony of me surfing EVERY DAY for a year, the year before does not escape me. Hardly. But those of you who know me well enough, would not be surprised by this latest irony.

Like I've said a hundred times, who would believe my life story?

I've lost count of how many strange things that have happened to me in my life. So really, it's all par for the course. I just get up every day and roll with the punches. Because I know there's always something coming at me. But I'm good. I'm ok.

I went surfing again.

[Photo 2] My typical self portrait shot directly after our surf. I was stoked.

We'd surfed this particular stretch of cement and sand since Max was four or five years old. It's one of my favorite sandbars. So I'm sure you're wondering how I did. Well, you know the old saying "It's like riding a bike?" Well it's not like that. Surfing is harder than riding a bike.

I caught a few waves. And missed a few dozen. But, I was out in the water again. And honestly, there's a reason why I have said and documented that phrase, or mantra, "Surfing Heals All Wounds"...because it's true. So on April 30th, 2013, I had started my own journey to start the healing, and to re-build up my surf stoke again. I'm a surfer.

I may not be out for every swell. And I may not be jumping on a shortboard anytime too soon, but, I will find the right time and place, and slowly work my way back to a comfort level where I can take off without any hesitation and hopefully find that hollow spot that I can revisit, and then, and only then, I will know, that I have truly come home.

Oh Mother Ocean, how I have missed your touch, your soothing, cleansing, magical power, of my very soul. It was good to be back in your liquid arms again.

Don't forget Tuesday, May 14th, 2013 at Hampton's Flatbread.
The ESA-NNE district Fundraiser. Help the local kids out at the same time you eat the BEST pizza around.

Now for Some Of My Weekly Global Observances:

I am not quite sure why Gringos celebrate "Cinco De Mayo" just as I am not totally tuned into the whole St Patricks Day celebrations. I know on St Patty's day, we are "All Irish." So on Cinco De Mayo, are we all Mexican? Seems to me, that Cinco De Mayo is just another excuse for the partiers to...well, party. Look, I don't have a problem with the actual holiday. Though it does seem to revolve around alcohol. Just saying.