Falling Off the Edge?

Are you in the midst of a difficult time in your life? We all have those times, and some of us, it seems, have more difficulties than others. How do we cope with events that could literally bring us to the edge of total despair–those times when we may feel completely alone in our suffering?

One important thing to remember is that everything on Earth is temporary. A change–though maybe not the change we expect or pray for–will eventually come.

Artists, poets, and writers, being sensitive persons, are particularly good at empathizing with and depicting hard times and struggle. Additionally for the artist, the hard times and struggles produce an automatic, kindred audience because any one on Earth can identify with difficulty. So this is why an author keeps putting up obstacles for his/her characters–and then a change that produces a climatic ending–more often than not, an ending that is satisfactory to the reader.

Change is as important in life as in literature. In essence, we’re writing our own story by the things we do, or don’t do, during the days, months, and the many–or few–years of our lives. We have been given free will to be who want to be. So, if we’re unhappy with ourselves, or our lives, change is possible. It may even be needed. But we can always make that day of change the first day of the rest of our lives!

For life events, such as disabilities of various kinds, that we cannot outwardly change, we may need to change interiorly in order to cope, and then ultimately come from despair to Joy. An offering of our suffering in Love, just as Jesus Christ did for us on the Cross, can cause that interior change. Here it is in poetry:

“And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
the Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!”

–from “Christmas Bells,” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Longfellow wrote ‘Christmas Bells’ on Christmas Day, 1864. The American Civil War still raged, but on July 9th, 1861, just three months after the bombardment of Fort Sumter opened the Civil War, the Longfellow family suffered a very personal tragedy. An oppressive heat wave in Massachusetts prompted Longfellow’s wife, Fanny, to trim the heavy locks of their seven year old daughter, Edith. Fanny decided to preserve little Edie’s curls. As she heated wax to seal the envelop, hot drops fell unseen onto her dress. A sudden breeze set the smoldering dress afire. In an effort to protect her young daughters from the flames, Fanny rushed into Longfellow’s study. Longfellow first tried to extinguish the flames with a rug, and when that failed he threw his body onto his wife, severely burning his face, arms and hands. Fanny Longfellow died the next morning.

Copyright 2014 Kaye Hinckley