Every good New Englander knows, when you start to slide – whether ice or mud or slippery rock – the key to survival is to ease up, regain your footing, and then proceed with caution, maybe by another route.

Oh, but it’s hard, when every fiber of your being is saying, squeeze tighter! Turn sharply! Faster!

It’s hard to be calm and curious when being turned upside-down.

But however unwelcome the spiral, dear ones,

we must trust and hope

in the new possibilities

on the other side of the spin.