15. Feb, 2016

Rising tide of panic

At the ebb of the tide the pristine sand is magically transformed into an artist’s palette of spherical balls.

To anyone’s eye this is a magnificent sight and appears as a serene and mystical fascination of nature.

Accompanying this wonder is an even more beautiful spectacle as the sand starts to move, and just as a wave waves it rises up and begins marching to the beat of nature’s hum, as millions of aqua blue soldier crabs embark on a battle for survival.

In nature and as in life, real truths aren’t revealed without digging deep below the surface!

Those little balls of sand that gently massage your feet as you walk across the sandflats are actually plundered sediment left by the battalions of soldier crabs that have marched across the flats stripping them of any goodness and life.

So, imagine now that those crabs…let’s call them "cranky crabs"…were actually trapped inside your body, scratching you from the inside, piercing your stomach with their tiny pincers, frantically clawing at your bowel with their thousands of legs, marching their way up your intestinal tract and in desperation for air stabbing at your lungs in an effort to steal your breath.

And they aren’t interested in whether you live or die, all they care about is their own survival, so they will do anything to conquer the war they are waging within your body.

You can almost feel your breath ebbing away because the cranky crabs have infiltrated your lungs! They are feeding on you like you are a piece of rotting meat, and as they grow stronger, you are getting weaker…but they are not done yet! Reinforced by the strength of your life giving breath they are winning battleground.

They march onward and upwards in rhythm to the pounding of your heart…it almost calls to them, and as the resonating beat slows they begin to gather together in unity because they can sense impending victory over their foe!

And you?  You can do nothing more but rally and begin to fight back, and you know the only way you can win this war with your life intact, is to expel every last one of those crazy, cranky crabs from your body.

In desperation you reach for your weapon of choice, and it might be food, or alcohol, drugs or displaced violent rage…anything that you know will help stem the rising tide of panic those cranky crabs have stirred up within you.

However your particular method of expulsion doesn’t work because those cranky crabs are resilient; so they bury themselves and wait until the next ebb tide before they begin waging their will for supremacy once again.

But what could you possibly be thinking? This is really an unwinnable war, and true victory will come only when a peaceful co-existence can be brokered!