Thanks, Maarten van Doorn for reading and responding. My opinion is that we have enormous influence over the waves and the extent of that influence is determined by whether we are reacting to life or responding to it. I talk about that difference in my article, Reacting or Responding? When we are in a reacting mode — a sort of conditioned auto-pilot — we are just sort of floating about subject to whatever we may encounter. By turning that auto-pilot off we can step into the observer mode from which we can respond instead of react. This is when we truly start navigating our boat, so to speak, and have a conscious and powerful impact on the waves we are creating. I hope that made sense. From the observer mode of a still mind we not only have more impact on the waves but we also become more aware of them.