Inktober/Blogtober: Day 10

Life is a strange thing.  We're born, we grow, we experience good things and bad things, try to make sense of it all and eventually, no matter how rich, poor, loved or alone we've been in life, we all face the same, levelling fate.

Inktober's prompt word for today was "flowing," and when I read it, I felt a strange sort of understanding of the way life itself ebbs and flows.  

For much of last year, it felt as though the tide was rushing against me.  Most of the life rings I could usually reach out for were gone.  I spent months, kicking my legs furiously, waving my arms and desperately wondering whether I was strong enough to stay afloat.

Somehow, I learned to swim.

This year, the tide has turned.  The water is calmer, warmer and less threatening.  Instead of thrashing around, my head barely above the waves, I've floated gently, kicking my feet to propel me forwards.

That's not to say there haven't been moments when the waves became choppy.  When I've needed to find new ways to tread water, to stop myself slipping under.  But those storms have always passed and the sea has returned to a smoother state.

Traumatic experiences are a part of life.  If you can live to an old age and never have been through pain, grief or heartache, it's possible that you've not really lived at all.  For the sadness and the hardships in life are unavoidable.  

But what is certain, is that the tide will turn again.

However high the waves, however cold the water, hold your nerve and keep kicking.  Someday, the good times will return and somehow, they will be ten times sweeter for the difficult journey you had on the way to them.  You'll appreciate them more.  You'll understand that this is just how life flows.  From good to bad and back again, with all the nuanced moments in between.

For a long time, I didn't see anything good, ahead.  I wanted to turn back and swim to people and places I'd lost.  Now, I realise the tide carried those from me for a reason. 

Life will ebb and flow.  You just have to flow with it.