“Karen’s Noggin’ 🧠 Nuggets” #39 ~ October 22, 2022
WHO ARE YOU FOLLOWING?
During college, in my senior year, I had the opportunity to take an interim class (in January) that was not offered too often. It was Scuba Diving. How fun! We would spend the first part of the month in the school’s pool getting our certification for diving. Then we were off to Cozumel for an experience of a lifetime diving in those beautiful waters. WOW! It was an amazing adventure being able to swim along the fish deep in the ocean! The colors down there are nothing like on land. They are incredibly vibrant. I just recall how bright the coral was. I loved that adventure! I loved it all except for this one dive we had. We were all diving in our group together like we always had with our local guides who were prepared with their knives strapped to their legs. I’m thinking they were prepared in case we encountered a grouper fish. We were told to not mess with them if they happened to come around us because they could grab onto us and take us down too deep and that would be the end of us. Ok, no problem, I got that message. So we were swimming along and I followed some of our group as they went into a cave. Usually the caves we would swim through you could see the opening on the other end. I don’t recall seeing that in this case, I just followed one of my classmates. I’m swimming through the cave and there’s not as much light in there but I do see the sand being stirred up from the flippers of the diver in front of me. There must have been multiple paths through this cave because I don’t think I was following my classmate anymore. The cave seemed to get narrower and narrower as I swam. It was as if I hit a wall in the cave and the tank on my back was hitting the ceiling of the cave and I could feel the coral on the bottom of the cave scratching my legs. It’s as if I got myself into a tight spot. On top of that, there was no light. Everything had gone black. I was now stuck in a cave! I knew that I didn’t have a lot of air left in my tank as we had already been diving for a while. Somehow someway I began to inch my way back and forth to move to the right since I knew the left side of me was a solid part of the cave. I managed to finally move just enough to see a little light. Oh, what a relief. I worked my way toward the light until I was finally out of the cave. But now I had something else to panic about. I knew I had probably used up extra air during my ordeal and I was dangerously low on air. I quickly swam to my instructor and showed him the sign language that I was low on air and would be going up to the boat. In my ordeal of rescuing myself and fearful that I would run out of air, I probably rose to the surface a little faster than I should have. Fortunately, I did not get the bends but I was wiped out from the reality of what had just happened and so thankful to God that I had come out alive.
Did I go on another dive on that trip? You bet I did. Would I go on another scuba diving trip? Probably. Would I stop and think about who I follow? YES!
So after all these years, I have great life lessons from this experience.
1)No matter how dark and lonely you find yourself, God is still there. He is always our hope, our light in dark places and He can make a way out.
2)Trying something new and exciting can still be a great experience even if it didn’t go perfectly. Give yourself credit for trying something new.
3)Even if there’s only a glimmer of light, that’s all you need to get out of the darkness. Look to the light and keep your focus on the light.
4)Be careful who and what you follow. Not everyone and everything is going to lead you to where you want to go.
For more information on this subject and/or if you would like to work with a Life Coach to work through some struggles or have someone beside you to help navigate life, contact Karen at https://happybrainlifecoach.com/
Thank you for reading “Karen’s Noggin’ 🧠 Nuggets” #39 ~ October 22, 2022
