I know that feelings and circumstances ebb and flow. They rise and fall like tides. I can watch them come and go. I am not outside them. I feel them. I ride in them. But they are not eternal and they do not make up all that I am, they are just how I feel right now.
Stressors can so quickly throw me over the edge, reverse the flow like a valve. I can be doing great and then something happens that turns the tide and I'm swept away, sometimes far out to sea. Then I drift on the dead tide until it rises slowly and brings me back in.
But I am not defined solely by these tides. I am more. I can swim. I can float. I can dive. I can heal. I am connected to the living source of all things in whom there is no darkness or changing, only eternally flowing creation and hope and love. In my most alone times he is beside me. In my darkest times he carries me. In my good times he sings with me.
I will ride this tide and simply feel it flow.
