Today was a day of sadness for a great number of people I know. The title of today’s blog makes perfect sense in the context of what they’re going through.
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I think the old saying “Love hurts” is more true than ever when you get past your hormonal overload years. Most of us, if we’re honest, will confess that a great deal of the passion we felt in our love in our teens/twenties was due to biological storms taking place in our loins. That doesn’t mean that you were wrong, it’s just that that pretty face or six-pack abs was a bit more important in the beginning than their knowledge of Semitic history, or their ability to make great and beautiful things with knitting needles.
Now, in the second half-century of my life, I see the amazing love that older people have for each other in a different light. I also see the pain and anguish that goes with that love that matures in your thirties and beyond.
Today, and every day, I would like it if you’d pray for people who are on the edge of losing a loved one. Sometimes it’s a beloved dog that a lonely person has had for a decade. Sometimes it’s a cat that has been with them since it was a kitten. And sometimes it’s a human to whom they were paired and are now about to lose. All of those are harder when you get older.
It is often said that Facebook makes us cruel and venal. Today, and quite a bit recently, I saw just the opposite happen. I had a dear friend let her sphere know that the love of her life, her husband, would not be leaving the hospital after a long illness. He’d been fighting hard, she’d been fighting hard, but the battle is being lost and he’s now being given palliative care. I can’t reach out and touch her hand, but I can pray. A lot of others who read her post chimed in as well. The best in us comes out when another’s in need.
Another friend, much younger than me, has a brother-in-law who’s in an induced coma now while they treat the flesh-eating bacteria that is trying to take his life. It’s under control. But it’s the second person whom I’ve been aware of with this condition in the past three years. Satan is pretty busy trying to bump off good people with this one.
A third friend was bitten by the dog she adopted. No biggie, right? Wrong. There is an infection raging in her body and she’s been hospitalized to treat it with massive doses of antibiotics. For her act of kindness, adopting a dog, she’s at risk of serious damage to her body.
Pray also for my friend who is in chronic pain and undergoing a procedure this Friday for a chance to end that pain. If it doesn’t work, I know they’ll be devastated. The pain is crippling, and depressing. Mind and body go together, and this good soul is very low.
Finally, pray for another brave person I know who is dealing with a sexual assault many years after the fact. Struggling to be free of the shame, guilt, and depression that ride along with that soul-stealing act of an evil man.
All of these people have loved ones who suffer along with them. Pray for them also. It’s harder in some cases to be the caregiver than the one cared for in these situations. Each of them will be touched by your prayer.
Remember the lonely who have no other to comfort them and pray for them. Reach out and do a kind deed for an older person who is alone.
Thank you for listening to me today. It’s been a tough day.
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