Limitations

I am no different than you. I have all the same faults and frailties built into my carapace as any other human. What's different in all of us is the central processor. Our motherboards may look alike but that processor can evolve or devolve rapidly.

Experiencing an uptick in the stress-o-meter raised some dormant awareness neurons in my head. The busy-ness of business never goes away but over the last 90 days it hasn't ebbed much. Toss in whatever's erupting at home and you have the formula for overload. This constant stream of tension and deliverables can force a response in one of two ways: The first is to stop fighting the current and get washed down stream. The other is to swim your ass off. Make it to the next rock. Fight to the next tree branch. Hold on, catch your breath and then plunge ahead.

Getting washed downriver can appear as the only choice at first. It requires far less effort and can ease the stress and tension. When you realize what's happened it can be too late to recover. You're bobbing along in the center of the fast moving river when you hear a rhythmic noise growing in volume. The crashing and roaring of the waterfall announces proudly that you it's next victim. You try to start swimming. The effort is in vain. Had you resisted the current when given the choice, the waterfall would only exist as a warning of what happens to those who cease working, cease caring.

Now the pounding of water plummeting and being broken apart on the rocks below expands to a thrumming crescendo. You swim with all your effort as you near the edge. The currents start to swirl and you find yourself swimming toward the edge!. Panic seizes your mind ordering your arms and legs to stop. Lips pulled back in a rictus, teeth trembling, a wail of terror peals from your throat. Over the edge you tumble. Legs and feet rotate up as your head and shoulders roll under. Losing all sense of equilibrium you fall to the patient rocks. The hungry, accepting rocks. A wet paper bag full of overripe tomatoes hitting the pavement kind of sound is hardly noticed beneath the ceaseless power of the waterfall. 

In seconds the rock is washed clean. No evidence of the collision exists for the curious to discover. Above, another scream rips through the moist air. The rocks spread their slow, ageless smile.