That’s what teaching Surfing to People with Disabilities Taught Me That

Every day could be the last. Not in a dramatic way, not in a dark or fearful way, but in a very real one.

Working with people with disabilities through surfing has taught me this more than anything else in my life.

Before this experience, I think I understood gratitude only intellectually. I knew I should be grateful. I knew life was precious because that’s what everyone says. But knowing something in your mind and truly feeling it in your body are two completely different things.

The ocean changed that for me or maybe the people did.

The Kind of Perspective You Cannot Learn From a Book

Many of the people I work with today have become close friends. We laugh together, surf together, spend hours in the water together, and behind many of those smiles are stories that could break your heart; stories of accidents, illnesses, unexpected moments that changed everything overnight.

One day they were walking, planning trips, building careers, living ordinary lives and then suddenly, one second, one event, one diagnosis, life became something completely different. Being close to people who have gone…

We Forget How Lucky We Are

Sometimes I watch us humans and I almost want to laugh.

Not because our problems are fake, they feel real to us, but because we are so incredibly talented at creating suffering even when life is giving us so much.

We complain because: it’s too hot, too cold, too windy, because we accidentally ate gluten, because someone didn’t text us back, because the boyfriend is acting strange, because the algorithm didn’t like our post, because traffic was bad.

And meanwhile..Our hearts are beating, our lungs are breathing, our legs are walking. The ocean is still there waiting for us. We forget the biggest miracle of all:

We are alive.

I forget too sometimes, of course I do: I still get anxious. I still overthink things that probably won’t matter in a year. I still have moments where I lose perspective completely, but this work always brings me back, every single time.

The Ocean Has Become a Teacher

There’s something deeply humbling about watching someone enter the ocean after life has tried to break them.

The ocean doesn’t care about your story, it doesn’t care about your fears, your status, your limitations, your identity, and yet somehow, it holds everyone equally.

I have seen people who were told they would never experience freedom again smile in the water like children. I have seen confidence return to bodies that had almost forgotten joy. I have seen people reconnect with life itself through a single wave, and honestly, sometimes I think they teach me more than I could ever teach them, because despite everything they’ve lost, many of them are still deeply alive.

While the rest of us, the “healthy” ones, are often disconnected, numb, distracted, chasing things we don’t even really care about.

Maybe We Are Looking for the Wrong Things

Modern life teaches us to constantly search for more: more success, more money, more beauty, more followers, more productivity and yet some of the happiest moments of my life lately have looked very simple:

being surrounded by people I love.
watching the ocean at sunset.
hearing laughter after a surf session.
being close to animals.
feeling salty skin and tired muscles after a day in the water.

Nothing extraordinary and yet everything.

This project, this work, reminds me every day that life itself is already the miracle, not the perfect version of it, just life, messy, uncertain, beautiful life.

Nothing Is Guaranteed

I think one of the biggest illusions we live with is the idea that we have time.

We think: “I’ll be happier later, ”“I’ll slow down later,” “I’ll appreciate life later,” “I’ll finally do what I love later.”

But later is never promised and again, this is not pessimism. It’s actually the opposite, because once you truly understand that life can change in a moment, you stop postponing your own existence. You start paying attention, you start noticing things, like the smell of the ocean, a conversation with a friend, your dog sleeping next to you, the feeling of sunlight on your skin, the privilege of simply waking up healthy, tiny things become sacred.

I Am Deeply Grateful for This Life

Today, more than ever, I feel grateful for the life I’m living, not because it’s perfect, as it isn’t as there will be always hard days, confusion, fear. stress, financial worries, relationship struggles, moments where I question everything, but underneath all of that, there is something else now: more awareness that this life is precious, awareness that being here is not guaranteed. Awareness that I get to wake up near the ocean, work on projects that matter to me, be surrounded by incredible humans, animals, waves, nature, friendship, meaning.

This feels like wealth to me, not the kind you can measure online, real wealth.

Written by Birgit Kunzli

I am an Italian born writer and travel journalist. The day I turned 40 I became a full time surfer and writer. See you in the Ocean!