Note: word of the day is: abscond.

Life is a beach so I suggest you learn how to swim because you never know when you might slip and fall in the water, or be pushed, which seems to happen to me more often than not.  Of course I am just using my powers as a writer to draw a picture of life as a beach.  Imagine if it was and imagine if you will walking down your own personal beach.  Even though it is yours and you have been walking on it your entire life you never know what lies ahead.  A loose rock, a rogue branch hidden under a blanket of leaves, or ice covered rocks.  The point is as we walk down our paths we never know what we may encounter and the chances of plummeting into the vast depths of the frozen uninviting oceans on either side.  It is bad enough trying to traverse the often dangerous paths while dodging natural deterrents but what makes things worse is when you realize others may in fact be trying to push you off also.  There is no worse feeling in life than feeling the hands of envy, spite, hate or betrayal propel you off of your path and into the stinging cold of the waters below.  The water has one purpose and one purpose only, to make you panic and succumb to the icy grip of fear attempting to force your courage to abscond and leave you helpless, doomed to forever float in the cold ocean of defeat and failure.  I have swum in the ocean of defeat and failure more than most people I know and more times than not it was the hands of others that shoved me in, for a while I felt like maybe my destiny was to be a piece of flotsam in the ocean of defeat since I seemed to spend more time in the water than on my beach.  I learned how to swim rather well in the cold waters of rejection and defeat and just when I thought I might be able to get comfortable in the grey bleakness of obscurity I saw a warming light on the beach that I distanced myself from for so many years.  Cautiously I swam toward the path that had been to hard for me to walk down, fear and trepidation engulfed my very soul as I reached the shore, the light was gone but I caught a faint glimmer far down the abandoned beach.  I was too afraid to leave the cold waters that I had gotten so used to, at least in the ocean of despair I knew I couldn’t be hurt anymore yet the overwhelming urge to experience life again pulled my wrinkled body from the darkened waters and back onto the beach I had fallen from so long ago.  It took me a while to get my footing but I have been walking down my beach for a few years now and even though I have taken a few unscheduled swims on the way I don’t stay in the water anymore, I pull myself up dry myself off, kick a rock or two and then get back on my way.  I will slip a few more times and I will most definitely be pushed a few more times but that is all part of the journey.  I will not linger in the water, I made a choice to not hide from life in the waters of obscurity.  I gave up once and wasted a lot of my life treading water when I should have been on my beach chasing my dream.  The moral of this story is simple, we are going to slip, we are going to be pushed, we are going to spend time in the water, having the courage to get back up and right back on the path is how we fulfill our true destiny…………..PEACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!