Dive

As the waters steadily rise,
building into a tempestuous wall
of inky blue foam and spray,
your instinct clamoring,
desperately calling you to
higher ground,
to channel all efforts into
the act of getting away –
in that suspended moment of time,
consider the unthinkable,
the very thing that you have
consciously chosen against
for all this time,
that has kept you from
what your primal heart equates
with certain death.

Step toward the wave.
In fact, run toward the wave.
And before your mind realizes that
it has lost track of your movements
for just that moment…

dive.

A deep, deliberate dive
directly into the swifts of
unpredictability and chaos,
drawing yourself down and underneath,
through the layers of silt and stone
to the wide underbelly of eddies
that allow you to move through
as the tempest rages above,
your breath aligned with
the steady pulse that tethers itself
to the base of the storm.

Be assured that
the promise of this journey
is not quiet and calm.
You will no doubt be tossed about,
caught from time to time in
directionless swirls as you question
the intelligence of your choice.

But before you give up,
convince yourself that you have
gone mad and cannot continue,
consider this:

You are no longer standing alone
at the top of a windswept crag that
safely overlooks the squall below,
your blood slowing,
your spirit cooling,
as you realize that you have
moved away from
the very thing
that can save you.