Ascension : News From The Grotto - 5th Sunday of Lent
Submitted by The Islander (Shari Parkhill) 02.04.2009 (Article Archived on 16.04.2009)

This week, I’m heading off island for a short leave. I have to attend a recertification course, and I decided, due to the circumstances in my family, to go home and spend some time with my daughter Maggie.

  As I’ve said, she is my baby and I need to see how she is doing.  Phone calls and emails aren’t enough to ease a mother’s heart when they know how much their child is suffering.

Of course, I will also get to spend time with my wonderful little grandson Dominik.  Again, even seeing him on the webcam is not enough.  He’s growing daily, and I miss him dearly.

I’m also looking forward to seeing the rest of my family and friends.  My visit will coincide with the visit of an old friend who also lives away.  I haven’t seen her for many years.  She has a little baby.  It will be great to catch up with her.

Going home in the circumstances that I do just reinforces to me how life is full of good things and bad things, all at the same time.  They are intrinsically wound together in the fabric of our lives.  All we can hope for is that in the end the good outweighs the bad.  And that we have the love and support of loved ones along the way.  We need to celebrate the good times with them, and help each other out in the bad. 

There is a song by Garth Brooks that I love called “The Dance”.  To me it sums up how life is a dance that we should take part in, no matter how it ends.  Here are the lyrics:

Looking back on the memory of
The dance we shared 'neath the stars above
For a moment all the world was right
How could I have known that you'd ever say goodbye

And now I'm glad I didn't know
The way it all would end, the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance, I could have missed the pain
But I'd have had to miss the dance

Holding you I held everything
For a moment wasn't I a king
But if I'd only known how the king would fall
Hey who's to say you know I might have changed it all

And now I'm glad I didn't know
The way it all would end, the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance, I could have missed the pain
But I'd have had to miss the dance

Yes my life is better left to chance
I could have missed the pain but I'd have had to miss the dance

I know that some of the things in my life that brought me the greatest pain when I lost them also brought me the greatest joy when I had them.  And having had those experiences, and now the memories are what counts.  They enriched my life and have helped to make me who I am.

I’m sure that no matter how much pain my daughter’s sister-in-law Christy has suffered in losing her beloved husband and precious children, she will never regret having met, fallen in love with and married Jason, and having little Hannah and Jack.  They were her dance, her precious gifts of joy.  I know that she is grateful for every moment that she shared with them.

Life shouldn’t be lived on the sidelines.  Life is meant to be lived, the dance should be danced, whatever the outcome.  God gave us this life, this chance.  Reach out and grasp it with everything you have.  Accept the gifts.  And when the bad comes along, let us remember that the pain we suffer is because we had something good.  And let us remember to give thanks for that.

To everyone, I wish you a wonderful Easter.  May the resurrection story hold hope for all those who suffer that there is hope in the darkness.  The light will shine again.  May God bless us all.

“Life isn’t about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain.”