Sorrow, Healing, Hope

“There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and have recovered hope.”
- George Eliot, 1819 - 1880

Mary Ann Evans, Ms. Eliot spoke the truth. When I think back to my painful firsts - failures, losses, deaths, disappointments - the first of any given one, was a body blow. Sometimes a great overwhelming sense of physical weakening, as I was sent reeling. The world spun. The bottom dropped out. But with the next one (and life always brings us more) there was some memory, some learning, some reflex that got triggered that said I’ve been here before. More importantly, that memory brought strength, resolve and a little beacon of light. The more years we live, the more we experience the sorrows, the more rhythmic it becomes. We don’t like that part of the ride, but we know that somehow we survived the last one. Surely, we will pick ourselves up and find our way through, once more.