How many times a day, a week, a month do you do things that you really don't want to do but you do anyway because society, the culture, or your friends/family expect you to? I'd wager its more often than you decline and instead do something that makes you happy.... And I'm not taking about going to work, or working in the yard/house, or feeding and getting your kids to school or bed. I'm talking about the completely voluntary social "obligations" that we each just assume are required of us.

A friend recently wrote on Facebook that he was tired of attending family reunions and having to field questions about why he wasn't yet married and how he should just pick someone and settle down. I suggested he stop attending family reunions... Seems simple enough a solution to me.

But it's not so simple when it's ME having to step up and tell close friends, "Thanks for the invite. But I'm going to watch a movie instead." I know I'm free to decline. But it's really difficult to be THAT free. It's easier to bend to my history, lineage, and the cultural assumptions of what I'm supposed to do rather than follow my own passions and interests and make myself happy.

It's easier to go and be miserable than stay home and be happy...

So what's this got to do with this surfer kid waiting for the set to pass so he can hop in and get out to the waves? Honestly, I'm not sure. But I know this kid took a beating from several waves while trying to keep his balance, and his board, on the slippery rocks before he was able to dive in and paddle out to the wave break where he really wanted to be. I took the easy way out today. Next time I hope I have the courage to say, "No thanks." and put my time in on the rocks so once the crashing sets pass, I can dive in and paddle out to where I'd rather be...

(I took this photo with my iPhone at world famous Ho'okipa Beach on Maui's North Shore on December, 18th, 2010. It was cropped and colors were punched up a bit in Photogene on my iPad.)