Getting to Shore

Lovely day!  Grateful to be alive.  I found this on an old blog.  I wrote it way back in 2014 (under my pen name) when I found myself  awakening at four in the morning.  I was struggling with being between the shore I wanted to be on and the world I lived in for too long. I felt like I was drowning.  Hmmm! (Dramatic, eh? lol) I feel compelled to share it here.

 The Shore

 I feel the demanding presence of the current
pulling me further away from shore,
towards the others...
so many others,
bobbing effortlessly in the distance.

I am no longer like them,
I realize,
as I swallow the salty bitterness
of the life I am drinking in.

I turn my head to see how far I have gone.
I am so far away from where I am meant to be.
The fingers of my misguided effort
wrap them selves around me,
squeezing  my chest and neck
until I cannot breathe.

On the shore I see the familiar comfort
of rest I long for.
I no longer need or want the challenge of keeping up
with the many swimmers ahead of me.

I fight the waves that push me backwards
and I turn toward the sandy beach,
now so far away.
My  arms flail in decisive movements
but the current is so resistant to my moving back
to where I came from.
Atlas, my body is exhausted for coming out so far,
from chasing a horizon no one ever reaches.

Suddenly, I am heavy with the weight of this sea
and I go down
as the foamy bubbles of someone else's dreams
fill my lungs.

I can do nothing
but extend one trembling hand up through the wave,
in my pathetic request for help.
The others do not see it,
I know that,
but Spirit does.

In the dark abyss of nothingness,
 I feel the arms around me
lifting me high above the surface
and carrying me effortlessly to the shore.
I do nothing
but accept the help that is being offered.

And I am saved.
I am home
on solid ground,
where I belong,
where I can rest,
where I can breathe and
 where, once again,
I feel
a strong and stable earth beneath my feet.
I rest in the place
I never truly left.

Dale-Lynn 2014