Rain Will Fall...

" Into each life some rain may fall..." Who said that? It sounds so watered down and meaningless when you're faced with some of life's biggest challenges, doesn't it? The sadness I'm feeling tonight is for a friend who is facing surgery this week. I found out tonight and it just knocked the wind out of my sails and she is being a real trooper. I've known a lot of people in my frame of reference who have faced obstacles, but very few have had the tremendous strength and grace this woman has. She is amazing! She reminds me so much of the way my mom was. Resiliant.

And my cousin's son is still in I.C.U., although the doctors are telling his wife his progress is amazing. Combine that with the fact that he has to have more surgery and they had to perform a trach. He was on a respirator for weeks. He will have to be on insulin for ever...I'm trying to remember how many weeks he's been hospitalized and it has to be close to three months. He's all the way back in Washington D.C., his parents are in California.

I don't have a sister but my cousin and I are as close as any sisters I know, and her mother's heart is so torn. There is not a good open line of communication between she and her son and she's been getting information second-hand. I keep playing the tapes in my head, imagining how I would feel if it was my son. It's so important to get all of the information available, not just the headlines - she needs the whole body of evidence, so to speak, a frame of reference. She is hoping and praying that when he's able, they'll decide to return to California and true healing can begin...

I believe in prayer. I am praying, and I know that many others are praying also. We are praying for healing of the physical body and in the later case, the heart and old wounds, as well as the ones brought about by the surgeon's knife.

In this world of topsy-turvy beliefs, it is a good thing to have old values and comforts to fall back upon; to cushion yourself with and to feel cradled in arms that will never fail you. Into each life, rain will indeed fall. It will pour down around you and leave you battered beyond belief. But listen for the soft rustling of angel's wings and believe...