WHEN THE WAVES CRASH: BECOMING SEA GLASS

“The wave is the same as the ocean, though it seems to be different.” – Ramana Maharshi

Have you ever felt like life has been crashing over you in relentless waves… one after another… each stronger, louder, more unyielding than the last? There comes a point when you stop asking “Why me?” and start asking “What is this wave trying to make of me?” But the truth is, waves don’t only destroy. They refine. They sculpt. They transform.

When a wave crashes, it can break the door open. When a wave crashes, it can close the door you tried so hard to keep open. And sometimes… when a wave crashes… it destroys the foundation you thought you were standing on… only to reveal that it wasn’t solid to begin with. But if you stay… if you keep breathing through each surge, each crash, each pullback… you start to notice something miraculous: The same waves that tried to drown you are the ones polishing you into sea glass. Sea glass doesn’t start beautiful. It begins as something broken, discarded, and sharp-edged. It tumbles endlessly in saltwater, scraped against rock and sand until one day it becomes smooth, soft, and radiant. The ocean doesn’t erase its story… it transforms it.

“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

I used to believe survival meant resisting the tide… fighting to stay upright, to keep my footing on shifting sand. But waves aren’t meant to be fought. They’re meant to be felt. You move with them, not against them. You learn their rhythm. You let them teach you how to rise.

Each of us has our own version of erosion… the process of being worn down only to be redefined. Some become pebbles… rounded and softened by endurance. Some become shells… cracked, yet pearlescent in their resilience. Some become sand itself… no longer one solid identity, but a thousand glimmers of experience that shimmer under the sun. And then there are the rock formations… those who have faced centuries of crashing and still stand tall, carved into intricate shapes only time and tide could create.

The pearls, born from irritation and pain, layered patiently with grace until they shine. The sea cliffs, jagged but steadfast, holding space for the very ocean that shaped them. The reefs, fractured yet full of life, protecting the shores that once seemed so far away. And the seashell mosaics, pieces of what once was, arranged by the Divine hand into something breathtaking.

“Even the roughest wave polishes the stone it touches.” – Anonymous

There are seasons in life that feel like endless storms… where your plans crumble like sandcastles, and you’re left wondering if you’ll ever see calm seas again. But as the African proverb reminds us: “Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.”

We are shaped by what we survive. The depth of our compassion, our wisdom, and our faith is carved in the very moments we thought we couldn’t withstand.

“Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” – J.K. Rowling

It’s at the bottom, in the silence after the wave has taken everything familiar, that we finally find out what cannot be washed away. That’s where new foundations are born… not in ease, but in surrender. Sometimes, it takes being submerged to learn how to breathe differently. Sometimes, it takes the tide pulling everything from your hands for you to finally understand what was never truly yours to hold.

“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.” – C.S. Lewis

There’s beauty in the aftermath… in the tidal pools left behind, where tiny worlds begin anew. Life finds a way in the quiet corners of loss. That’s how healing begins: not in the roaring wave, but in the still water that follows.

“The tide will recede and leave only what is meant to remain.” – Anonymous

We fear change because it feels like destruction, but what if change is simply divine refinement? What if the wave isn’t punishment but purpose?

“Out of difficulties grow miracles.” – Jean de La Bruyère

“Change is never painful. Only the resistance to change is painful.” – Buddha

“The wave knows no resistance. It becomes what it meets.” – Zen proverb

That’s the secret, isn’t it? The ocean doesn’t apologize for its force. It doesn’t cling to what it shapes. It just moves… endlessly creating, endlessly letting go. Maybe we’re being asked to do the same. When you stand at the edge of your life and watch the next wave rolling toward you, you have two choices: Brace yourself in fear, or open yourself in faith. Because even when it hurts… even when it takes more than you thought you could give… there is something sacred in the surrender. The sea teaches us that loss and creation are not opposites; they’re partners in becoming.

“The sea complains upon a thousand shores.” – Alexander Smith

“What we call chaos is just patterns we haven’t recognized.” – Chuck Palahniuk

Maybe the chaos isn’t chaos at all. Maybe it’s choreography.

“Every wave, regardless of how high or low it crests, must eventually break.” – Anonymous

And when it does, you’ll realize that what was breaking was never you… it was the illusion of control, the idea that peace meant stillness. Peace is not the absence of waves. Peace is knowing you are the ocean.

“The storm makes you stronger if you refuse to drown.” – Matshona Dhliwayo

You will not be the same person who walked into the water. You will emerge softer, lighter, luminous as sea glass. You will carry the wisdom of reefs, the courage of cliffs, and the grace of tides that keep returning no matter how many times they fall away. Because you, too, are being polished into beauty by the very waves that once tried to break you.

“The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination, and brings eternal joy to the soul.” – Robert Wyland

And maybe that’s what the waves were trying to show us all along: that every crash, every pull, every moment of surrender… was never meant to end you. It was meant to refine you.

(Ps. I think this is possibly the start of a new book… #StayTuned)