The river of life

There are bumps-in-the-road challenges and then there are enduring challenges. Throughout life factors combine to form the people we are and the people we will become. Our perception guides our feelings and then our behavior. Strengths develop and so do weaknesses. It seems that we generally wear our strengths on our shirt sleaves. Most of the time we are not too afraid, or too reluctant to show the part of us that is healthy, vibrant, and strong. On the other hand, we tend to hide our weaknesses. We privately tuck them away, often appropriately so, to protect ourselves and those around us.

Life carries us along like a rushing river. Sometimes we recognize that we are simply too weak to swim in rough and deep water. The current is overwhelming and we will drown...unless we fight! We swim hard even though the current is pulling us down. We draw on our strengths to stay afloat. We accept the fact that the current never weakens and neither can we. We pray for a life preserver but it doesn't come. We realize that our strength alone will not be enough, our weakness is weighing us down. Perhaps it is not so much our weakness that weighs us down as it is our fear that induced the weakness. Fear creates drag like a heavy anchor. When we face it, panic and pain try to drown us in the torrential stream. We gasp for air, we struggle to stay afloat, and time slows to a virtual standstill. Finally...we emerge. The fighting has made us stronger and the fear is gone.