Riding Waves: A Poetic Reflection on Healing

Something I’ve come to realize over the past five months is just how unpredictable healing can be. Some weeks feel like progress, and without warning you could be pulled back into old patterns. Things you thought you’d already worked through can resurface unexpectedly. But over time, you develop tools, insights, and perspectives that allow you to move through these moments differently. Yes, it’s turbulent. But it does get easier.

This post is a poetic reflection on the ongoing and disorienting nature of healing.

Waves of emotion
That come and go.

Just when you thought you were through,
That the sea has finally calmed,
Another wave comes
Crashing over you,
Throwing you back into the surf.

It’s disorienting.
Inner peace, surrender
They disappear in an instant.
A sudden feeling of drowning.
Collapsing.
Again.
Into undertows of unprocessed pain, grief and trauma
Before you catch your breath again.

Unsure how to swim back to shore,
Feeling like a child learning to swim

Wanting it to stop.
For the sea to finally calm,
Rather than keep churning.

Hoping to one day land
On the safety of the shore.
A place that feels like an endpoint,
Where healing finally ends,
And a new chapter begins.

But that’s not how healing works.
Waves keep crashing over you.
New challenges continue to flow through.

And the pain, the wounds  
Maybe they never truly leave.
Maybe they always live within you.
And instead,
How you relate to them shifts.

Waves, like healing
Are a powerful force
One you can’t control.

And I’m still learning how to surf
How to ride the waves
With each passing swell.

At least now
I’ve learned to ride them
With a lot more grace.

Closing Reflection

There’s no final destination in this work, no fixed point that tells you you’ve made it. But I’ve come to find quiet power in riding the waves differently, with a deeper trust that I won’t drown amongst the messiness that is healing.