I was thinking today that just being alive is a such a wonderful thing. To wake up each day with breath is a blessing. And I know I write that almost every day but I think we need reminding of what a gift each day is. The world is full of all colors and all shapes of folks and we all walk around on this beautiful planet Earth, dressed right now in her spring fancy. Life is a journey and we all choose our own paths. Even if that road has some darkness and storms, we know that once tomorrow comes the clouds will part and the sun will rise. Agatha Christie wrote, “I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly acutely miserable, racked with sorrow; but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.”

Today is another beautiful blue sky spring coming summer day. My yard is full of the glorious little songbirds gleefully talking and singing, the yard symphonies rolling through the wind that’s pinging the wind chimes pleasantly. I have been a porch swing potato today, sitting and watching the birds with no purpose to my day. I watered my flowers in the urns and filled up my new bird feeder with sunflower seeds and blueberry and orange suet cakes. I talked to the hot pepper seedlings with promises of Miracle Grow and a pine straw bed to keep their roots cool.

I was so happy to see a little cantaloupe in my garden sprouting his leaves, brave enough to push himself through the soil without any others. I think the ground hog rooted his family up. I put a tomato cage and a circle of pine straw around the cantaloupe hoping to protect it. I’ve ordered some gardening fencing so maybe that will deter the night critters.

I have a quote that will not leave my mind. “Don’t be defined by your tragedies, be defined by your triumphs,” Viktor Frankl. Been thinking about this quote for several days. I heard it on Bonanza, I think. Sometimes the only way to purge a thought from my mind is to ponder on it and then write about it. I consider the death of my daughter from a car accident and the death of my husband from Covid as tragedies. All of us experience heaviness and suffering that plague everyday life. How we deal with these events defines our character as we find meaning and purpose in our life. We have to trust that God will ultimately turn tragedy to triumph. When we lose loved ones we have to have enough faith in God to believe we’ll be reunited in eternal life.

Psalm 34:18 reads, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; He rescues those whose spirits are crushed.” In Joshua God tells us to be “strong and courageous” to not be discouraged or afraid for “the Lord your God is with you whenever you go.” When we face suffering God will wipe the tears from our eyes. He holds us in his hands and gives us the strength through our faith to overcome the darkest of storms. Romans 8:35-39 states, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

We should not feel that heartache is a punishment from God. I can admit I felt God was punishing me when Rosalyn died. I wracked my brain searching for the sin that brought this terrible nightmare to my life. God doesn’t promise us that there won’t be rocks along our journey but he does promise to help us walk that rocky path. We all have free will, we make choices, and life ultimately happens. Tragedies shape our values and our beliefs. They are painful and disrupt our lives but we learn we have to eventually get on with the business of living.

When we’re tested by storms we can find meaning and purpose in our life as we learn to rely on our faith. We build up our emotional defenses and begin to empathize with others who are experiencing heartache. After Rosalyn died I found myself writing letters to other parents who lost a child, expressing my sympathy, giving them hope of once again walking back into the sunshine of life, assuring them God was walking beside them on their journey of grief.

We all face drama in life and sorrowful events befall us along our journey. How we deal with tragedy defines who we are. When we glorify God he wipes the tears from our eyes and turns our tragedies into triumphs.

“Into every life may come tragedy and triumph. Our goal is to meet both equally with serenity and radiant acquiescence. Yet even from the storm clouds of tragedy, rainbows can appear.” — Alessandra Lapland