Just Reach Out

Dear Diary,
Life is full of surprises, isn't it?

Back when my peers and I were in our prime fertile years, finding out the gender of the baby-under-construction was starting to become standard.  A question that was once never an option and only a guessing game from old wives tales was creeping into our language:  "Are you going to find out what it is?" 

In answer to this question, a friend once told me, "There are few, true surprises in life."  (And I think she meant happy surprises.)  She and her husband would wait until due time for the gender of their baby to reveal itself.  Ahhhh, delayed gratification... a topic for another day, I'm sure.

Anyway, I always remembered her statement.  And I have a terrible memory, so it must have been worth remembering.  It is said that death and taxes are a sure thing.  That leaves pretty much everything else in life on shaky ground, right?  Hence, life's little surprises.  Of course I'm not going to name them all here.  That would be boring and depressing, and I would certainly overlook a multitude of experiences others have had that I have not. 

Suffice it to say that we all experience times of lulls.  Our solid ground times.

Humdrum, comfortable predictability. 

Then BOOM! 
A phone call, a comment, an election, a doctor visit, changes the solid ground into:

SURPRISE!

In one week, I have seen two examples of desperate people who couldn't handle life's surprises anymore.

I can't even fathom the helplessness and hopelessness they felt in order to make the decision they did. 

Surprises were meant to be shared. 
The happy ones are easy.  Usually they are hard to contain, like some bubbling, carbonated liquid, which by nature, must spill over. 
But the surprises which are sad, bitter, and hard need to be shared too. 

Reach for a phone, a friend, a minister, a Bible.  Just reach out, and spill it.  There will be relief --solid ground-- again.

Firmly planted,
LJ

I love you, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
Psalm 18:1-2