words for others

I started out writing about myself this morning. How I feel in these early morning hours with the sky a muted dark gray and daylight not yet visible. The experience of walking outside and feeling brisk, icy cold air dance over the goosebumps on my skin. When I sat down to write, I began searching inside myself for something to say or stories to tell or a way to form the words to express my gratitude for the ending of a long week.

I quickly realized that today is not a day for writing about myself. There is really nothing pertinent I need to say this morning...nothing about myself anyways. But there are quite a few important things I do need to say about others...for others.

It has been a difficult week for several people I know. So I am choosing to use this time, this space, this avenue, to ask for prayers for these dear souls. To ask for healing thoughts and prayers of comfort to grace their lives today, and in the coming days.

In these early morning hours, I want to introduce you to a few people in my life that need some uplifting thoughts and moments of peace.

** An elderly couple in their 70's, recently separated through both emotional and physical distance by the devastation of Alzheimer's. Though the man has been in a nursing home for the past several months, he took a turn for the worse this week and is now unable to feed himself or walk around in addition to no longer recognizing his wife or anyone else he encounters. Though he does not appear to be belligerent or angry or in a great deal of physical pain, his recent deterioration is incredibly difficult for his wife as she visits him and watches her life-long love become ever more lost in a world of isolation and detachment.

** A very dear friend, the end of her vacation being met by physical sickness and an overload of emotional stress. Though she has kept her positive and refreshing attitude towards life and those around her, it has been a difficult week for her. Desperately seeking guidance in making decisions and relief from the physical pain and discomfort, she continues to meet each day with hope and her optimism continues to touch those around her.

** A young man, the carrier of too much responsibility and the bearer of too much heartache. After finding his mother comatose the day after a tragic suicide attempt, he has spent many long hours by her bedside on the ICU floor of a hospital. Waiting on test results, to know if she could ever recover from the devastation experienced by her body, praying that God would make his will known and guide this young man in the decisions he must make for his mother's life. She was taken off life-support last night and has now passed from this world. Though she is no longer fighting the horrors of mental illness and the desperation for escape, her son and his sisters are only beginning a long journey of grief and mourning.

I ask of you today to please lift these people up in your prayers and your healing thoughts. Each of them is struggling today; they have been struggling throughout a long week of sadness, desperation, confusion, and pain. I am saying prayers that they find comfort, moments of peace, physical and emotional healing from the painful burdens they have each encountered.

And on mornings like these, when we struggle to find the words to express our own feelings or write about ourselves and our lives...may we be reminded that some days it is others that need our words rather than ourselves. Today is one of those days.