From Papa’s Workshop Notebook

Sometimes my thoughts feel like waves on an endless sea.
I start with one small idea, and before I know it, I am miles away from shore, pulled and spun by something that feels beyond my say-so. The waves come fast, one after another, each insisting it is important, each louder than the last.

But beneath all that movement, there is something quieter.
A stillness that does not chase or argue. A place within that watches the waves rise and fall and knows the sea has not gone anywhere.

James once wrote that a person who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. He was not scolding; he was pointing to what happens when we forget where our steadiness comes from. When I lose sight of that quiet center, I get carried by every passing thought.

Yet the moment I remember, just remember, that I am the one aware of my thinking, not the thinking itself, everything softens. The waves do not need to stop; I simply do not have to ride each one.

The mind can be noisy. But Mind, the deeper intelligence that gave rise to life itself, is always calm, patient, and steady. Like the deep ocean beneath the surface, it is never disturbed by the weather above.

When I rest there, direction returns on its own.
The sea does not need my control to be beautiful, only my willingness to notice the still water beneath the waves.