The Tide
On waves you didn't see coming.
Most days you can stand in the water. The waves come and they hit your ankles, your knees — small reminders, manageable surges. You feel them. You adjust your footing. You stay standing.
And then one comes out of nowhere — bigger than anything you saw coming — and it takes your legs out from under you entirely. You’re underwater before you knew the wave was there. You come up gasping, disoriented, covered in sand, trying to find the surface.
The tide doesn’t mean you’re weak. You were standing in the ocean. Anyone would have gone under that wave.