And I see a man swimming in the Atlantic Ocean He is a skilled swimmer His strokes are strong and steady, their form correct And I see that he is followed by many others Not all as highly skilled at swimming as he is And the first of the group is about 3 feet behind him He is at the forefront and center And they are following him They keep their eyes upon him They are trusting in him to lead them to shore To know the way to shore And he continues his purposeful rhythm and his steady pace And they to the best of their abilities swim as well as they can To keep up; to remain within the group To not be left behind And are any of them left behind? Let me look, Mother I see that yes, there are stragglers The weak and the slow But they are not behind For stronger swimmers are swimming behind them Swimmers who could easily move forward to the front of the pack Are remaining at the tail end So that no one is lost Not even the weakest and the slowest So no, Mother, no one is left behind Excellent Continue dear one And now land is on the horizon The swimmer at the front sees it The ones behind him do not see it yet But the front and foremost swimmer sees it And it is all he can do to not double his speed So as to reach the land But he is mindful of the swimmers behind him He knows that he must remain within their sight And so he maintains his pace, neither increasing nor decreasing it Despite his oh so strong longing to just swim right for shore and now! And now the swimmers are near the point where the waves break And yes now all the swimmers see the land ahead Right past the breaking waves is the land And the lead swimmer shows them how to catch a wave And ride it into shore The breaking wave is actually a help; it is not foe but friend For it will ride you into shore more quickly than one can swim in And the lead swimmer is standing on the land Looking back at the ocean The group is still behind the breaking waves The first row are approaching the breaking waves And you can see their hesitancy Some of them remain in place as they wonder how to approach the breakers For they are not sure how And the lead swimmer sighs And plunges back into the water And returns to the first row of swimmers And coaches them He demonstrates the body position necessary He explains to them to let go; to relax; to trust in the wave to carry them in And with a few by his side, they ride the waves in together And the 2nd group of people have seen this And they now take their courage in their hands and do the same And yes, some of them are tumbled about this way and that But they all reach the shore They all safely reach the shore But the 3rd group is fearful It had not been able to clearly see the leader’s demonstration And it is looking at the breaking waves They seem so violent these waves And they are fearful And the lead swimmer takes a deep breath for courage and resolve And plunges back into the water And repeats his explanation And he has a few swimmers go ahead With only his explanation to guide them The swimmers already on shore are clapping and encouraging them on And when these few swimmers have safely reached shore The lead swimmers turn to those who are now next Are you ready? And yes they have seen their fellows, their peers safely make it to shore They have seen the more advanced already standing on the shore They have heard his detailed explanation Yes, they are ready! And they too make it into shore And some of them get frightened while riding the waves And so instinctively resist And therefore are battered about more than is necessary But they all make it in safely to shore And so the process repeats itself The lead swimmer remains out behind the breakers As he treads water and coaches and instructs and encourages Each successive group to get past their fear of the breakers To understand the concept That the breakers will actually relieve them of their effort And carry them into shore And line by line, group by group, they all With varying degrees of scrapes and of being tumbled about They all safely reach shore And now the weakest swimmers are up next And by now the lead swimmer is tired His legs are like jelly And he knows that if he waits for all the remaining swimmers He shall surely drown Of this there is no doubt And so he turns to the stronger swimmers Who had been protecting the weakest Keeping them from falling out of the group altogether Keeping them from discouragement and from giving up in fatigue The lead swimmer explains the concept and the technique Of riding in the breakers to these, the last and stronger swimmers And he asks them, he charges them with the task and the responsibility Of bringing in these the weakest of the swimmers in to shore And they readily agree And now the lead swimmer is truly fatigued beyond measure For he had been treading water a long time now He had been displaying patience and forbearance for some time now And he feels his endurance running out And no, no one is to be sacrificed for another He takes a deep breath of the salty ocean breeze for courage and energy And yes rides his last wave into shore And arrives safely And now the stronger swimmers each take charge Of a few of the weaker swimmers Some strong swimmers have as few as 3 weak swimmers They are responsible for Others have as many as five But each weak swimmer has a strong swimmer assigned to him And feels great relief And slowly but surely Each group of swimmers One strong swimmer along with 3 to 5 weak swimmers rides in to shore And Mother oh my dear Mother They all make it in! They each and everyone arrive safely into shore They each and every single one of these swimmers are standing on the land! Oh no! I am seeing one swimmer One lone swimmer caught in the breakers And oh dear, he seems to have got caught in a riptide And the look of utter panic in his eyes is clear to all And they look at each other And yes consensus quickly forms And they form a human chain From the shore to the swimmer in crisis They each hold hands and they each stand firmly in their place Until the very last swimmer reaches the one in trouble And picks him up and bodily hands him to the person behind him In the chain And so the one caught in the riptide is handed from one to the other To the next until he is finally on shore And this process repeats itself The human chain stands firm The person furthest out in the water; for he too is in the riptide Reaches to the person closer in And he too is handed from one to the other to the next Until he too is finally back on shore And this process repeats itself Until all are safely standing on the sand Until all are out of the water Until all are out of danger And now yes, the statement is true Verily it can be said that not one was lost Each and every swimmer from the lead to the weakest Is now standing on land And yes some of them are sitting on land For truly this has been a harrowing experience And some of them are only now beginning to allow the truth Of how close they were to drowning to surface to their consciousness They are only now beginning to allow themselves to realize And feel the danger they were in And yes they all sit down And some are in tears In tears of gratitude and relief In tears of exhaustion In tears And when they have been spent of their tears I now see them in a circle around a campfire And yes now they are eating and nourishing and replenishing themselves They are being restored to themselves Their nerves are being calmed They are being healed And yes they find great comfort in the food and in the fire And in their comrades All of whom, thank God, thank God, have survived this trek And yes now they have finished eating And they now bow their heads and silently give thanks to God for his mercy For the great mercy he has shown them In leading them safely home They thank God for their leader They thank God for each other and for the help of their neighbors Some of them even know to thank God for the help of the breakers Those breakers which rode them in home When truly they had been too tired to swim any further And now their prayers are over And the sun has set And they are now lying on blankets And they fall asleep under the light of the stars