When all hope is lost, just keep on swimming
The darkest nights, the forlorn days, the misery of existence…
We live in a world where there are the swimmers and the drowners.
I need a reason, a reason to keep swimming even when the waves of negativity keep crashing to the shore.
I keep fighting even if it hurts, even if I get knocked down again and again. Even when every muscle in my body hurts, even when no one can see my tears in the ocean of life.
What’s the most important reason to keep on swimming, even when I am tired? Because I want to live my dream. I want the goal so badly that nothing in this world will stop me from getting it, no matter what it may be.
I am knocked down by the waves of negativity; they constantly try to pull me down. The freezing cold water, the fear that resides deep within me. The intense need for fresh water. My lips are dry; oh, so dry. My mouth feels like sandpaper. Will I make it? Will I ever be saved? I am lost at sea.
Yet the big sharks keep eating the little fish easily without any resistance, the ocean filled with predators, seen and unseen.
I cry out, “Help, help, HELP!” Yet no one is there. Just me and that damn huge ocean, endless, tormenting, just allowing me enough time to give in, give in, give in…
“NO!!!” I cry. I’m bigger than the ocean, I’m bigger than the predators, I’m bigger than my limitations, there is something more and I must fight, have courage, persist.
What is my purpose? My reason for being? My place in the scheme of things?
Keep swimming, harder, faster, proudly with a determination that the Almighty would smile upon.
Then, out of no-where, just like a thief in the night… a boat. Coming right towards me! Is this a trick of the eyes? Am I dreaming?
No, it’s real! It’s a fisherman’s boat coming right towards me. Coming to rescuing me, rescuing my soul. I am saved! I finally have what I so longed for.
But that boat, my saviour, was a trick of the eyes, an illusion. It wasn’t real. I can’t keep swimming, but I tried, I tried, I tried!!!
Broken, I couldn’t fight anymore, I let go, let go, let go…
I was drowning. My life, my dreams were finally over…
What was it all for? Any of it? Why did I fight so hard, for what? WHAT!!!? For what?
Letting go, go, it’s all gone now.
Floating on the water, being rocked by the waves. The sun beating down on my sunburned skin. I have resigned to the fact that my life is over. I begin to hallucinate, to live the delusion. I am surrounded by swimmers all around me, laughing and having fun. They are diving off their boat in the open water with me. One swam towards me and passed me a chilled water bottle. This is bliss, I thought. I forget all about my dire situation. The water is like liquid heaven as it touches my lips.
Then I am teleported to another place… my family, my kids. They are there hugging me and cheering me on. I feel all the love and support in the world. My heart fills with love and happiness; no longer am I in emotional and physical pain. We are in the lounge room playing jacks, just hanging out and having fun like we usually do.
Then, in the distance, I hear a whirring sound. Slowly it grows louder and louder. I look at my partner’s and my children’s faces. They seem undisturbed by the noise. It gets so loud that I must block my ears. What’s going on?
All of a sudden, with a great surge of energy, I re-enter my body. I feel all the weaknesses of my body again… the thirst, the cold, the hunger, the lack of energy. It’s all coming back to me now. The sound is so loud it’s deafening. I open my eyes with the hot sun beating down upon them, and I recognise now where the sound is coming from.
A rescue helicopter…
Keep fighting, even though it seems absolutely pointless. Persevere and never let the dream go, then your helicopter may finally come for you.
What is it you long for?
I long for happiness, nothing more than that, but is this helicopter real?
I slipped into unconsciousness…
My soul didn’t belong to any ‘Devil’, it belonged to happiness. I tried, but I am happy. After fighting for life, the intense struggle, I surrendered to happiness.
I awoke in some strange place. I was told I shouldn’t be alive, yet here I am.
I am Alive!
My whole reason for being is to live life, share life, be life, be happy.
Only happiness, just happiness, makes life worth living in the great ocean of possibilities and opportunities that will surprise us all if we only just keep on swimming with courage and bravery.
Co-written by Helen and Kai