Monthly Archives: November 2015

I walked into a large department store around the middle of November, and what did I hear…  Jingle Bells!  And, I do mean bells ringing, not the song.  I stopped mid-step and burst into tears because this holiday season, I and my family will pass through these days without our third of four sons who died suddenly in late August.  I knew the holidays were going to be tough… Hearing those unexpected Christmas bells caught me off guard.  WHAM!  It was a sock in the mid-section.  Oh, I got my act together again quickly …  I did what all other people do, who lose someone and feel so very sad from the loss; I found my Saturday face and stepped back into the day.  But though successfully compartmentalized, all that pain was just sitting there waiting to come out.

Pain after losing a loved one is very much like having an infection of the body; only it’s your soul that is not doing so well.  We have to get rid of that pain, that infection (if you will).  Pain leaves by purging; and, while crying is certainly a part of that, getting our minds on other people as we help them

We’re all familiar with that moment when we just can’t keep our eyes open another second, some may fight it, (and I am one of them who has) but in that next moment we’ve betrayed our resolve, we’ve dropped into slumber…  It happens without our permission and without even our knowledge; then we awaken to laugh at how needed that rest really was, and how much better we really feel!  Alsop reminds us that death is the same. You and I can fight it if we wish, but it’s coming none the less.  And yet, this thing about fighting death… I think we do fight and rage against it until we somehow know intuitively that it’s time to lay down the fight and allow God the clear path to do the rest.

Sometimes that letting go can lead to a miraculous recovery!  Sometimes God just wants us to get out of the way, so we can feel Him do what He and only He can do for his children.  (And, when I say children, that is all of us, whether we see that He’s there or not.)  Other times, it really is a sign or some kind of knowledge sent to