“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life” — Proverbs 13:12
Deferred Dreams Make Us Sick
Sometimes you just have to start moving towards your dreams. Even if it is inconvenient and life has thrown you some severe curves and hardballs. This is why I created this website to write and promote my book called The Mystic BodyBoarder: How God Found Me In The Water. This is a dream I cannot get away from, and I have a book in me that begs to be written. If I deny this dream, what will become of my heart?
Our dreams can get lost along the way if we don’t nurture and protect them. Over the years, I learned that dreams are like summer clouds before they are actualized. They can appear for a moment and evaporate against the pain, suffering, disappointments, and regrets that life often presents.
Once those dreams are gone often, we feel like the living dead and become the shell of the person that God or Source created us to be. Life loses its purpose, passion, and sense of meaning. And our deepest desires become an echo of the person we once were and wanted to be. We learn to live in auto-pilot and create a false or Shadow Self from our fragile egos. It is reinforced by the many character defects we have subconsciously created to strengthen that false or Shadow Self. A deep hole develops in our hearts that cannot be satisfied. We tell lies ourselves to make ourselves feel better that we denied our hearts and souls their deepest desires and did not give all we had to pursue the deep magic that lives within us. We are haunted by the specter of what might have been.
The Emergence of the False or “Shadow Self”
Once we let go of our dreams and no longer pursue the things that give meaning to our lives, our Shadow Self is born. This false self is created over time by the limiting beliefs we inherited from our parents and early adulthood traumas. Perhaps our parents told us that we would never amount to anything or that we had to perform for their love. Maybe these beliefs were reinforced by our spouses, employers, peers, or teachers.
I once coached a successful businesswoman who could not enjoy her hard-earned wealth. Why? Because my client’s father told her when she was a small child, that money was sinful, and those who make a lot of it were evil or dishonest. Because she believed this, this amazing business woman became more driven and felt she had to prove to the world that she deserved the wealth she had achieved. The drivenness became a character defect that helped create her Shadow Self. In time, I helped her see this issue was a lie or limiting belief, and I helped her to step into her True Self. Now she is happy with her wealth and making even more money. She enjoys life and her family so much. https://findinggodinthewater.com/coaching-in-the-water/
Rediscovering Our “True Self” 
What is the True Self? The True Self is simply the person we were created or meant to be. It is the spark of the Divine or the image of God within us. This is our real state of being before our hearts absorbed the limiting beliefs, and character defects we developed to protect our ego or false self.
As Bagger Vance (God figure) said to Captain Junah, an alcoholic and burned out golfer, “You have lost your swing. I am here to help you find it again. Everyone is born with one true authentic swing that is unique to them and only them. It is who people were meant to be before all the would’ve, should’ve, and could’ve took over their lives.” As an author, my hope is that my “saltwater” memoir will help you find or rediscover your one authentic swing. What is your one authentic swing? It is your True Self and the dream within you that begs to manifest.
I know what it is like to lose your one authentic swing. Everything I described to you about losing one’s dreams happened to me. Creating a Shadow Self that flows out of believing lies, limiting beliefs, and empowering protective character defects to survive, I have experienced. And it sucked!
Let’s Move To The Beach 
I moved to Carolina Beach with my family in 2011 to take a sabbatical from my successful work as a peacemaker to complete my doctorate. My wife said, “Let’s move to the beach so you can write your dissertation without distractions. And we as a family can enjoy the beach each day.” So we did! I only intended to be here for two years, but the sea had other plans.
We have been at Carolina Beach for almost ten years. I never want to leave. The sea called my name and invited me to stay, and I said yes. When the ocean calls your name and your respond to her, she owns you. There is no going back. The sea’s rhythm, tides, winds, and cycles of the moon become an obsession and a comforting way of life.
We want to be with her every chance we can get. Over the last ten years, I learned that the sea will teach you everything you need to know if you but listen and spend time with her. If you look and listen carefully, she might help you find your one authentic swing or True Self again. She is helping me to find mine. https://findinggodinthewater.com/about-jeff/
No Longer A Nomad
I am a work in progress, and I do not claim to have all my crap together. But I believe the sea and bodyboarding help me find my True Self, detach more from my Shadow Self and find a place of peace I can call home.
Before I moved to Carolina Beach, I felt like a nomad since I left my home of origin in the foothills of Southwest, Virginia, at eighteen. But now my heart has no desire to roam or be somewhere else. I found my home on the beautiful shores and waves of Pleasure Island.
I always thought I would one day return to the hills, but life and the sea had other plans. Even from those lovely hills and mountains, I felt a yearning in my childhood to be near the sea. https://findinggodinthewater.com/soul-surfer-community/
Why I Feel Compelled To Write This Book
My life went through a radical change in 2012. One day God found me in the waves off Carolina and Kure Beach and began to play with me as I rode an old bodyboard that I pulled from neighbor’s trash. It completely changed my life. This is the core theme of my book. Something changed when I started bodyboarding that impacted my life and how I relate to the ocean and to others.
As I would bodyboard, I noticed three things: 1) I experienced self-forgetfulness. Time seemed to stop or slow down when I got stoked, catching sweet waves with my board. Stoked is a natural high one gets from surfing. My wife made me get a surf watch to stay grounded in this world and know when to come home. 2) I felt a sense of oneness with the birds, waves, sand, sky, and everything around me. I became mindful in a way I had not experienced before. I could see everything when I was in the water. 3) I had many moments as I bodyboarded that I can only describe as mystical. These experiences impacted me spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically.
“The Catholics have their rosary beads, the Buddhists their prayer wheels, and I have my bodyboard. When I bodyboard, I feel God’s pleasure” — Jeff Burns.
A Little Taste of Heaven 
When I would get home after a bodyboarding session, I would tell my wife Oceana that something was happening in the water that I could not explain. It was as if I had stepped into another world and pierced a thin veil between my world and an invisible universe. I encountered this universe when I took my bodyboard and entered the sea. I would laugh, cry, and shout as I played with God in the waves. When I would leave the sea, all my earthly burdens and sorrow were gone. I would blow her a kiss of gratitude and sometimes walk backward to look at her before I got off my beach access. I would often be so overwhelmed with gratitude and joy for what she had given me in my bodyboarding session that my eyes would fill up with thankful and mindful tears. I had to pull myself away.
I have spent the last three years researching and interviewing surfers and other water people to see if they had similar spiritual experiences. I have studied science, read many surf memoirs from diverse religious and spiritual backgrounds, and the conclusions are all the same. Something is happening in the water when you get stoked as you surf and bodyboard. It is both transcendent and mystical. Words fail us when we have these moments in the sea. I discovered similar experiences from fishermen, divers, and boatmen. Still, the most intense experiences happened to those who surfed in some fashion.
It is now apparent to me that something transcendent happens when we play in the ocean (I call it playing with God) that can lead us to be better human beings. Sigmund Freud called these transcendent or mystical moments “Oceanic Experiences.”
Dream Thieves and Critics
My love for the ocean and bodyboarding has come with a price. I was criticized by some religious people for loving the sea too much. They thought I should just focus on peacemaking and not write and comment so much about my love for the sea. This same kind of twisted religious thinking caused the early missionaries to outlaw the native Hawaiians from surfing because it seemed frivolous. It gave them too much joy and had to be banned. I will go into greater detail about this issue in my book.
As a result, I almost gave up the dream of writing my book and telling my story about how God found me in the water. And the profound impact the sea and bodyboarding had on my personal and professional life.
An Invitation to You
I am inviting you to explore the pleasures of bodyboarding, surfing, and living on the Carolina coast. I hope my inspirational memoir encourages people to start positioning themselves to have God moments or transcendental sea experiences as they play in the water. I want them to be fully aware of everything that is happening to them in the surf. Some call this enlightenment or mindfulness. I agree with those terms. It is a spiritual awakening, unlike any other. These terms mean we are awake, at one with the sea and all the creatures around us, and for a few moments, we forget ourselves and time as our ego goes to sleep. I believe as the ego shuts down, our True Selves come up from our subconscious, and we begin to connect and play with God.
On a broader level, I want people to view their hobbies, passions, the things that bring them joy as “sacred acts.” And I believe they can expect to experience the Divine in those things that are meaningful.
If you would like to receive updates about my book and my weekly insights about the sea and my adventures as a bodyboarder, you can sign up for them at this link. https://findinggodinthewater.com/my-upcoming-book/
Be The Hero In The Story
Don’t let go of your dreams. Be the hero (True Self) in your story, and let go of the victim (Shadow Self). I hope my joy and love for the sea and surfing will help you awaken the dreams God has put in your heart. The sea is a great place to be, and the teacher one must have to experience such an awakening.
What You Can Expect If You Subscribe To My Website
I will be posting interviews with surfers and bodyboarders, videos on all things bodyboarding. I will focus on intentional conservation of our shores and wildlife, and insights and experiences I receive after a session in the water. You will meet new and exciting people and learn a lot about the local businesses on Pleasure Island and the beautiful things that make this island our home.
Thanks for visiting my blog. Take a few moments to look around and see if you like what you see. Be sure to sign up for my book updates! https://findinggodinthewater.com/my-upcoming-book/
Hope to see you at the Pipe at the Alabama public access and catch a few waves with you in the future.
Jeff
