Hello Dear SandyKay! May you be blessed on this day, and may pain be recognized for what it is.... a symptom of things gone wrong, and Not be or become your identity. You are not Pain, for you are Sandy, she who comes along in life to bring Joy to others. You are God's beloved and the beloved of your faithful husband as well..... two utterly important blessings which center You.

Throughout the seven years of so much pain following the wreck, there were times when I lapsed into feelings of helplessness, and those times were so dark. Spending day after day in our bedroom, gazing out of the window, it was not easy thinking other than that the happenstance of NOT stopping to get coffee on the way to the airport one morning so as to avoid hurry had placed me precisely in the wrong spot at definitely the wrong time so as to be consigned to the prison of our bedroom due to the pain which followed. Helpless. I felt that for sure.

Then the contrast of being here on a roadtrip this weekend, visiting our parents, singing Ave Maria in a wedding yesterday then at church today demonstrates for me the great reality of God watching over us so life might change for the better. Allowing us the nurturing of hope for more tomorrows where pain is not a jailer and placed into perspective.

Today, sister-in-law Terri, whose horribly dramatic RSD matter left her without legs in a motorized wheelchair managing pain only with meds until her day for glory comes, came to the tiny church of this little mountain community on her motorized wheelchair so she could hear me sing. She cried tears of joy, for it has been over seven years since I could come here to sing. We walked alongside her on the short trip home on the street since sidewalks here are a rare and rag tag commodity. Thinking of her, I know I am blessed, for we were able to come once again to visit.

It has been a good Sunday, laying back on chairs in the shade of the trees visiting. Hummingbirds flitting to and fro while butterflies in great numbers alight here and there on flowers. The grace of peace falling all around us. This particular paragraph is the essence I sought to capture for you today Sandy. Peace as an image of shade, cool grass, hummingbirds, and butterflies all rolled up into a Sunday prayer for you that God embrace you as His beloved, sharing comfort and a lessening of pain.

Praying,
Mark56zzzzz [Maybe Rae has some butterflies or hummingbirds in her left pocket]