I awoke into this world at birth, submerged within the sea of life. It seems as though, within no time at all, the waves of circumstance began to crash against me at such a young age. So, almost instinctively and immediately, I began my long and hard struggle, fighting with all of my strength against the tides, forcing my way through them as they continued to pound against me.
Sometimes, it seemed as though I would swim so hard and for so long, only to be forced back to the same place that I had just been, and there were even many times when the waves rose so high against me, that I almost drowned beneath them, but I refused to give up. I was going to reach my destination, and all of that adversity only made me lower my head farther into the water, and swim that much harder.
Then, one day, as I was weak from my struggles, I lifted my head to take a good look around, and see the progress I had made. That was the day that my whole life changed, because that was the day that I finally realized, that all this time, I was so busy fighting against everything that rose up against me, I failed to see that I was only swimming farther and farther away from dry land, and farther out to sea. Truly, all along, all of those waves that I had been fighting against would have carried me away upon their shoulders, to my destination of peace and happiness upon the shore, if I merely would have relaxed and stayed afloat. And all of that time, I should have seen them less as obstacles sent to drown me, and more as the events I needed to help me reach my destination, the help that I had been praying for.
Sometimes, it’s not that we are afraid to fight, and it’s not that we don’t know how to fight. Sometimes, it’s not even that we don’t have a goal to fight for. Sometimes, it’s simply that we anticipate adversity so much, that we see even our blessings as curses, and instead of applying common sense, we dive in head first, convinced that by our struggles we will reach our goals, not even realizing that we are fighting away from them and not towards them. If we would have only applied a little wisdom, we wouldn’t have had to struggle nearly as hard, because with our strong swimming and the waves to our back, forcing us forward, we would have made it to the shore in no time. After all, when we started out, we weren’t that far from our goal to begin with.
04-27-2008 08:07 PM 
