mantra

Sometimes, I feel completely overwhelmed.  

Doesn't happen often.  

I like swimming in a big pond with sharp-toothed fishies,

 darting about, through the murky waters and the shimmering seaweed.  

I like it because it reminds of those dreams I had as a kid where I breathe underwater.  

But sometimes, 

just sometimes, 

I swallow a mouthful and end up 

gasping and choking and floundering.

I'm lost in the deep dark 

and I feel like I have nowhere to go 

and if I don't figure it out right away, 

I'm going to drown.

It is then, 

especially then, 

that I repeat my mantra:

Start where you are.  Use what you have.  Do what you can.

Over and over until I'm a calm little crab once again, 

crawling about the depths, 

shaping the wild ocean 

one snipped barnacle at a time.