jakorte's blog

I'd never really thought to define my life as one of adversity, but apparently it has been. Actually, all of our lives have been wrought with adversity, and will probably continue to be. From all the reading I've done on the phenomenon , it appears that without adversity none of us would have any character!

I’ve practiced writing my whole life; poetry, stories, journals. I wrote a lot about finding myself, being lost, searching, especially in my teens and twenties. I tried writing about love, but wasn’t very good at it. Perhaps, that was because I hadn’t experienced it. I wrote less as I got older. Maybe it was because my job was more demanding, maybe it was because relationships took more of my time, or maybe it was because I had nothing new to write about and just got tired of that.

I didn’t write much after I met my husband. I was too busy, too happy. I had no more questions about where I was supposed to be; I was already there. I wish I’d thought to write about the happy times while I still had them. Writing about them now is bittersweet and painful. I find myself laughing and crying recalling the hilarious, the deadly serious, and the everyday situations we found ourselves blessedly together in.

I read an interesting interview the other day. It contained a revelation that made me stop and consider its truth for me.
Country artist Gary Allen related a conversation he had with the late Harlan Howard, where Harlan told him, “that [he] could write, but [he] didn’t have anything to say.� After the passing of his wife, Gary says, “I guess I liked it better when I didn’t have as much to say, but now I understand what Harlan meant.�

I don’t know for sure that I have all that much more to say these days. I just don’t have anyone to say it to on a daily basis, so it ends up in my writing; newsletters, blogs, poetry, greeting cards, any way I can find to share the words I want to speak, but rarely have the opportunity to. It’s just not the sort of stuff that lends itself to casual conversation.

In the basic human design, we are all facing an end to our earthly being, and therefore we will cause and be caused grief. When losses occur, GOD gives us ways to cope with grief. After all, he gave us tear ducts and memories. HE allows us grief and grieving, which equips us to better help others who will inevitably be coming into grief at some point in their lives.

That’s a blessed cycle: working a flaw into a gift. I’m trying to use mine. I hope at least one someone understands that the pain is necessary for bringing us higher into HIS world. By attending others with more compassion than we previously had, and by guidance through their grief, we can offer healing and GOD’s love.

jak