I lay awake tonight in the darkness with
salty tears rolling across the bridge of my
nose and dropping to my pillow. I think of
two women:
My daughter spending her last night with
her husband and father of three children
before he returns to the war in Iraq. It is
a bitter sweet night of love and together-
ness before they face the reality of the
front lines again; she faces the loneliness
and struggle for patience of single parent-
hood again while he faces a dusty desert
of mortars, machine gun fire and bradley
patrols.
The other woman, my niece, with a
lemon sized tumor removed from her body
near her heart. A woman who should have
been blessed with an epidural to bear the
fruit of a child instead, now fights the pain
of a 12-14 inch wound in her side. A bitter
fruit indeed.
The nights can be long, sleepless and brutal
when our hearts are full of pain.
I pray for both women as I lie here beside
my husband of over forty years. I think of
another whose broken heart endured a long
brutal night of pain in a garden; betrayed by
a friend, unending cruelty and torture. He
did it all for you and me.
I drop my burden at His feet with faith and
attempt to fall asleep knowing He can bring
peace and comfort to every wounded soul even
in the dark of night.
