Gift from the Sea

To me, lying "choiceless as a beach - waiting for a gift from the sea" means to be goalless, purposeless, simply open to and allowing of whatever emerges.  It is mindfulness.  I interpret "faith" as allowing and trusting life as it is, on its terms, which means accepting not knowing what the emerging moment or wave is bringing.  There is no knowing what will happen.  Faith also means being responsive to the surprise of the moment, not trying to control or manufacture or manipulate it, but riding the present moment like riding a wave.  Faith is living in and trusting the process and not trying to make a certain outcome happen.  Lin Yu t'ang said, "If you spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live."  The moments I spend like that, either by myself or with another, are the best.