LIKE A CASTLE IN THE SAND

When our heart is filled with sorrow we find it hard to comprehend

why this happened in our life…why to our family or friends?

Yet it’s preposterous to think in a world where every living thing must die

that sorrow will overlook us...will somehow pass us by.

Just as joy has the capacity to surprise….sorrow has the capacity to shock.

The pendulum of life swings back and forth...at any hour of the clock.

In those inevitable moments when sorrow descends upon our land

It helps for me to envision it…like a castle in the sand.

At the onset a castle built of sadness stands tall...seizing our full attention.

Our life has slowed and is now crowded with misery, fear and tension.

Our face which one time was awash in smile is now in constant frown

but soon our tears, like the ocean’s waves, begin to tear that castle down.

It happens ever so slowly leaving us to wonder if we can go on

until one day we awake to find that castle is now gone.

We find we can be happy again, and though we’ll never be the same

our sorrow has dissolved back into the sands from which it came.

Certainly sorrow has done her damage, causing torment, causing pain

and in her wake upon our heart a lasting scar remains.

But that scar not only reminds us of the sorrow we’ve been through

It also shows, no matter what the pain, that we can heal too.

It shows we can survive...it shows we can withstand

It shows even our deepest sorrow will eventually dissolve…

like a castle in the sand.