Don’t Let Your Fears Decide Your Fate

Jay Moriarity at Mavericks, about to survive the worst wipe-out in the history of surfing…only to get right back up on the board to do it again.

Motivation and inspiration come in many (unexpected) forms. I certainly wasn’t looking for either, I was too busy feeling lousy and being stuck in my head, worried and depressed. Then, about a week ago, I watched the movie “Chasing Mavericks” for the first time. I’d been dragging my feet about it; the DVD arrived from Netflix and sat by the TV for almost a month before my husband convinced me to “just watch it already” so it could be returned. Admittedly I didn’t realize it was based on a true story, I’d just heard mixed things about it and had a vague sense of what the story was about – crusty surfer takes troubled kid under his wing, they surf monster waves together. I knew Gerard Butler damn near died while filming it, and that was about it. (Boy, was I wrong!)

Now, let me clarify that “Chasing Mavericks” is not about Ulcerative Colitis. It’s not even about overcoming illness. Yet it resonated with me, and where (thanks to this stupid disease) I find myself in life right now.