I Walked A Mile With Sorrow

Hello! It’s been a long while.

We lost our sweet Laudy in October. Her loss so soon after Pip was one of the most difficult times of my life. We lost her at the same time one of our new kittens became very sick and the combination of it all was traumatic. For a few weeks my mind spun into a sudden, intense onset of anxiety followed by a bout of miserable insomnia. Though anxiety and insomnia are apparently common during the grief cycle, I was completely unprepared for them.

It seems impossible to explain the multitude of ways God, in His mercy and compassion, helped, encouraged, held, and slowly healed me. He used my family, friends, church family, scripture, devotionals, sermons, book recommendations, our vet, my doctor, and a psychologist to bring me through. At every turn He was present and grew my faith and trust in Him until my sorrow seemed a gift instead of a terror. Sorrow is never for nothing when seen through the eyes of faith.

Gratefully, I began to feel like myself again and came out the other side of the ordeal just in time to enjoy Christmas with family and ring in the new year. It brings to mind a poem by Robert Browning Hamilton that I learned long ago.

I walked a mile with Pleasure;
She chatted all the way;
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow;
And ne’er a word said she;
But, oh! The things I learned from her,
When Sorrow walked with me.

Clemmy and Wally healed up nicely from their spay/neuter surgeries with the help of some cat suits I made to keep them from pulling out their stitches.

They are a hoot and are doing their best to keep us young. They chase ping-pong balls, laser lights, and ribbons, carry toys from one end of the house to the other, climb every piece of furniture like playground equipment and take turns sitting on each other in their own version of King of the Mountain.

I’ll leave you with a couple stanzas of one more poem, this one is based on Isaiah 43:2, “When you go through the waters…they will not sweep over you.”

Seas of sorrow, seas of trial,

Bitter anguish, fiercest pain,

Rolling surges of temptation

Sweeping over heart and brain —

They shall never overflow us,

For we know His word is true;

All the waves and all the billows,

He will lead us safely THROUGH.

Threatening breakers of destruction,

Doubt’s insidious undertow,

Shall not sink us, shall not drag us

Out to ocean depths of woe;