Breathe Promise, Breathe Hope

I found a rock, and I sat on it, its ridged surface without comfort, without a handhold. The ocean's foamy edge gushed over the rocky lip, a definitive demarcation line:
this far, and no further.
One breath.
In - out.
And another.
And another after that.

Like a rung on a ladder, each breath held the promise of an end.
An end to the pain.
To the roiling turmoil so vividly acted out by the surrounding scenery.
Each promise kindled the fledgling seed of hope, delivering a fresh supply of air to a spark threatened by the all-consuming darkness.
Hope was not lost that day. The spark flickered alive once more, to carry me through the night, so that I would witness, again, the miraculous break of dawn.