It’s such a hard question, How are you? It’s meant to connect but so often becomes isolating when you can’t muster up an authentic answer. I’ve given an assortment of answers. Exhausted. Fine. Still Alive. Not in a hospital so…. I crave being able to be authentic with my response. I want to believe that people really want to know. Often I feel that my true answer would be heavier than what they are looking for. As a result I give a fake half-hearted response and sink into the isolation that comforts me with its familiarity.

Yesterday the speaker at our church discussed the issue of loneliness. As he discussed a specific example he used the term “suffering well” and with this my heart lit up. That’s it! YES!!!!! Finally, words that describe where we are right now. I am exhausted. My body aches. My heart is broken. I am also loved by many, encouraged often by strangers as well as people that I know and I am full of hope.

That is what allows me to see the beauty inRettland. I spent a few years inRettland suffering. It was dark, arduous and depleting. Today I know that I am not alone here and that fact has made all of the difference. It allows me to see the light behind the clouds and to rest when I am weary.

To those of you that responded to my last post by stepping up to NOT SPEAK right away, thank you. It’s when people of all different circumstances come together and unite that Rettland becomes the great place that it is and we suffer well together.