A Slow Lightening

"Out of difficulties grow miracles."  ~Jean de la Bruyere



In the fast paced world that we live in, it can be hard to see beyond our own worries and responsibilities, or should I say "noses".  We forget that there is more to life than just what is on our personal agenda.  We may have problems,and maybe things could be better, or easier, but there is always someone out there that has a much greater burden to bear.  All you have to do is turn on the six o'clock news and that is made perfectly clear.  There is adversity all around us, yet there are miracles as well.  I am not just talking about the beauty of nature, a new babies sigh, or a crash of lightening that reveals the face of God.  I am speaking of the miracles that do not happen everyday, but some fortunate souls have the opportunity to see take place in someone elses life.  Some miracles are not fast like lightening bolts, they are slow like road repair, but they are still miracles just the same.  I have had the amazing fortune to witness one of these very miracles with my own two eyes.  This is my story:


There are many different ways that we lose things in this life, and many things that can slip right out of our hands without us even realizing what happened. We spend money that seems to fly away much faster than it came to rest in our pockets.  We can lose control of the steering wheel, or we can even lose our sanity.  Countless things get lost that our hands once held tight.  Life is one big harry monster of uncertainty.  One that I am certain resides under my bed when I cannot sleep at night.  I wish that I could know without a shadow of a doubt that everything would always be fine, and that my children would never be harmed or suffer in this life, but that is not the way life is.  Everyday is a new day, full of situations that I cannot predict, and lessons that I can either learn from or re-learn another day to come. 
Losing the ones we love is by far the hardest loss of all, but there are many ways that we can lose a person in our life.  Sometimes people desert us and leave town without a word.  Other times tragic accidents take them before their time.  But there are those other times when they are alive and breathing right in the same room, but we have lost them to the destructive abyss of addiction.  Denial can be a powerful force, one that covers our eyes like a heavy dark shroud blocking our view of the truth.  I think there can be no greater a denial than that of a parent, when it comes to the disfunctional behavior of addiction when it is happening to our own adult children.  At first you just cannot believe that something that wrong could be taking place.  Then you do not want to see it for what it tuly is, because that means you would have to actually believe it and that would be more painful than shards of glass to the soul.  My son's behavior had been only slightly out of the ordinary at first.  It was subtle things like borrowing a little extra money because they were behind on their bills, or not wanting me to tag along on errands.  Then it became more significant things with bigger problems attached.  These situations simply accumulated, creating a huge bolder that eventually crashed the walls down on all our lives.  It was a devestating experience full of misery and uncertainty.  A certain hell that I would not wish on anyone.  But when the walls came crashing down like lightening, and all was lost that could be lost, a miracle emerged.  It was a gradual process, much like road repair.  Where there had been lies and destruction, there was beginning to be truth and reconstruction.  The road recovery was arduous and slow like a crawl, but it was happening, and that was a true miracle in itself.  The recovery of a life is much like road repair.  It takes a lot of destruction and removal of bad asphalt before you can lay down the new pavement.  Seeing this process build and unfold like a flower in bloom is an amazing miracle to behold.  You see some miracles are not fast like lightening strikes.  They are gradual like snow and expand outward like the branches of a tree. A young man we had lost to a life turned upside down by addiction and alcohol, was regaining a whole life again.  This miracle is still a work in progress that I have the privilege to see, and it has an impact on all that are close to him.  Life is full of uncertainty in this world, but one thing is certain, miracles do happen whether we see a lightening strike or we do not.


Linking with Poetry Jam