Ebb and flow

It isn't just the tides that ebb and flow.  I think our energy level and moods have more to do with outside stimuli than from within ourselves, I am sorry to say.  I know that I like to feel that I am totally in control of how I am feeling. So just shake it off, already.

Then I realize how much more energy and vitality I have for instance when all is going well with our plastics' recycling program development. Yet, when plans fall through or do go as expected, I hit a functioning low. My initiative lags for the time until the next bit of hope is given to me. Ebb and flow from with out.

You see those in a new relationship going around with all kinds of life showing in their face.
However, when those who have problems at home, they can hardly drag themselves out of bed in the morning. Where did all that vitality go? It will ebb and flow like the tide with the tone of the relationship.

I wish it wasn't so, but you probably noticed that it is difficult swimming against the tide when it is coming in. That's what it feels like you are doing when you try to swim against the effect of the events in your life. Maybe that is why so many people are taking mood altering drugs these days.  They feel they have no control over the circumstances surrounding them and that effect their day to day life. So the only way they feel that they can gain control is to use a pill or something.

So what is one to do then, you may ask.  The answer, I think, is to get beyond the breakers, even if it is tough going against the tide for a while. Find some diversion that takes full use of your mind and what energy you may have left. And swim out beyond the breakers.

That's what I am doing with my sister, Anne, and daughter, Kathy, this weekend.  We are climbing the mountains to a lake in the wilderness over night. Not even an out house out there, I've been told! Might be a good time to just throw myself into the frigid water of the lake and swim. By the time we get back we will be on the other side of the breakers and enjoying the calm of the open sea.