Life as we know it is never all smooth sailing but interspersed with choppy waves, stormy waters and rocky with it. Life is a struggle at the best of times and we soon learn to roll with it, else we get overtaken and overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude and force of the tides and become submerged and drown. The experience leaves one drained, disheartened, disillusioned and devastated. Often the aftermath leaves one with issues of abandonment, without the strength, will or inclination to unscramble oneself, pick up and piece together the shattered remnants of one’s shattered lives and attempt to move on with the rest of one’s lives. It is a bitterly slow-moving process of self-healing which drags on forever, dredging up unknown strengths from deep wells of reserves coupled with relentless remorse and painful self-recrimination with its underlying paralysing shame and endless heart to self talks. It is small consolation that having lost the initial battle, we triumphantly win the war and emerge victorious, all the stronger for battling and surviving against all odds…all because we were born to survive just as our survival instincts kicked in into full battle mode. “I will survive” is the mantra to keep close to our hearts. However long it takes, in whatever shape or form, we will ultimately get there in the end, slowly but surely. ~ Margaret Young
