March 11: End of Winter, Prayer for a Stranger, Dark Place

...Patiently he awaited the end of winter and the coming of the little spiders.  Life is always a rich and steady time when you are waiting for something to happen or to hatch.  The winter ended at last.

I love this tiny passage from the end of Charlotte's Web.  It's tinged with loss, but also holds the promise of something better to come.  Warmth.  Spring.  New life.


I'm not going to wax philosophic tonight.  It's late, and I'm tired.  But I have been struggling for a while to find the end of winter, so to speak.  I wake up tired, go through the day tired, and come home tired.  To be honest, I know I'm wallowing a little bit right now, and I need to get out of this funk.

This morning, I registered a patient who, a short while later, found out he had cancer.  He was devastated.  When he came back to the waiting room to collect his family members, he started weeping.  It was heartbreaking to watch.  I've been thinking about this patient all day.

I had never met this person before.  He was a stranger to me.  Yet, I'm asking you to pray for him this week.  He's in a very dark place, and, I'm sure, he's not experiencing a whole lot of warmth or spring or new life tonight.  I know he's going to be on my mind, in my heart, for a while.

And this stranger reminded Saint Marty that life, while a struggle at times, is still full of possibility, promise.

Light is on its way