Heartbeat

Rise

Fall

Crest

Trough

Inhale

Exhale

Beep.

Blips on a screen.

The thin green line

rises,

wavers,

reaches a peak,

turns, and

plummets,

only to rise again...

Sometimes

steadily,

surely,

clean curves up and down.

Other times

unsure,

suddenly,

heavily,

shuddering.

But yet...

the rise and fall

are

constant.

Beep.

The line will always fluctuate.

The ups

always fall,

the downs

always rise.

A flat line means

failure...

And so,

we rise.

Beep.

Sometimes haltingly,

sometimes sure of ourselves,

but then,

when all seems good,

pleasant,

comfortable...

Beep.

The blip

turns downward,

descends,

darkens our eyes,

makes us feel

scared,

alone,

a failure...

But in reality

failure
is only found

in a flatline.

The downs

are a component

of life.

The valley,

the trough,

the exhale,

are as essential to life

as the vast mountain peaks,

the foam-tipped wave caps,

the cleansing, nourishing breaths

of lifegiving air...

We fall and rise.

Life is dark, then light.

We must prepare

for falls,

cushion ourselves,

steady ourselves,

reach out for support.

But we must also

remember--

The line will

always

peak.

Beep.

The dark never lingers

longer than its wavelength,

and...

Beep.

If we know the secrets

of how to climb

out of the troughs

Beep.

and ride the crests
as long as we can hold on to them,

then

we have

Beep.

discovered

the

secret

Beep.

of

Growth...