Keep Riding It
Imagine an amusement park. Imagine a rickety old ride that makes you feel queasy, a ride that others both admire and avoid. Go for it. Ride it.
Feeling nauseous? Keep riding it. Feeling sick? Keep riding it. This ride is all you have now and there's no going back. Days turn into nights into days into do you even know or care. Red into white into blue. Ride until you're feeling good again.
What will you do, they might have asked. Sleep, eat, work. Downshift. That is not a shift. Dogwatch is. Dogshift. Sleep, eat, work. Sand the potatoes, peel the rails. Keep the ride going.
Day into night, downshift into dogshift, learn their language and become one with the ride. Two-six into two-six-five. Raise the monkey. Slack and sweat. Sunburn and ropeburn. This is mostly a drill.
Look out, look around. Use your senses, every one of them. You're in a rolling ocean of moonlit tranquillity. Feeling at home? You're where you wanted to be, like you imagined.
