Life’s challenges come in waves. Maybe they lap at our feet or get our rolled-up jeans wet. Sometimes the cold water rises, striking our core. Once in a while, a big wave comes along, and I fear I will drown.

I have experienced these waves literally and figuratively.

My guy and I used to bodysurf off Cape Cod. Once I got caught in a wave that tossed me around until I didn’t know up from down. I lost my breath and was terrified. When the wave receded, I found myself in a few inches of water. I stood up, coughing and sputtering. I was a sight washed up on the beach. Rolland laughed. I was too scared to think it was funny. I went to the van and wrapped my newfound respect for the surf in blankets. It took most of a day to shed the cold. I was 24-years-old.

The figurative surf is harder to manage because I forget the waves are there. I don’t see them coming. Last Sunday, I got a call that struck like an icy wall of water out of nowhere. I was disoriented as if underwater and unable to breathe. Hot tears became the ocean as I reached out and found the hands of my family. We struggled, gasping, holding on tightly to one another, instinctively refusing to let anyone go.

The allegorical water calmed and receded in time. I looked around, and there were unfamiliar faces that had been pulled into this loving human circle. Somehow, miraculously, everyone had survived. Maybe it was sheer will, a refusal to release. Love is strong, after all. So are prayers. There are many things I don’t understand, but I do know that this extended family is bonded. Our circle is larger and stronger.

I write about Yin & Yang often. They coexist, by definition. Illness and health go together hand in hand. We can celebrate health more meaningfully and manage illness more lovingly with a strong supportive community. That is a key, I think. Whether in sickness or in health, we need our people. Tangible evidence that we are connected is reassuring.

As I regained my footing and looked around, I realized the sky was bluer and the sun brighter than I remembered it. This is a good day to celebrate being healthy.