We are riding the waves of this precarious life. The tide goes out with my broken heart and back in with all of my blessings intact. How can it be otherwise?

The wonderful new painter will be back this afternoon to touch up my kitchen cabinets. Almost 30 years of blue. They were dark brown before then. I have always liked the blue. He has the name of an angel, Rafael. He has very positive energy and has done a good job on the exterior of the house.

To continue the metaphor of inside and outside the house— the inside of me carries a heavy load of sorrow daily. Rob is going to Memphis to meet my sister and I am not going. I have decided that travel is too difficult for me. I will work on my ebook and spend a lot of time in silence. Editing your own writing is very difficult, I must say.

I have written so much over almost two decades of healing. Onto the pages I have decanted my daily drafts of grief and the occasional spiritual breakthroughs that I have had. I hope you know how my writing has changed me into a different person. That is because I write of both the sacred and the everyday. In a 24-hour period we can feel like we ourselves are the tide and our impermanence is magnified. But who is watching the ebb and flow of our emotions? Answer that question and you will have unified the opposites.

Vicki Woodyard