"Don't Quit In The Pit"

 

So....I wrote this article a few years ago as I found myself climbing out of the Pit of death, grief and recovery. Like a scar that never quite goes away but tells its own unique story of how it got there, this popped back up this week and I wanted to share it for that "someone" out there who needed the reminder to never quit in the Pit.

There is this invisible hole we all long to climb into when times get tough. When flood waters come, when cancer knocks on the door, and when death happens while we sleep. We get our shovels out and we dig.....we dig until the Pit is big enough to crawl into and we can no longer be seen. We sit with our knees curled up to our chests as we rock back and forth, in perfect sync with our pain.

If you haven't taken that shovel off the wall of your garage yet and started digging, you will someday. It's not a matter of WILL you....its a matter of WHEN will you.

I sat out next to a fireless-firepit this past Saturday with my dear friends Jack and Marlane as my realtor showed the house to a potential buyer. It was cold, misting rain and my coffee had moved from hot to cold in an instant. We talked about the Pit....the Pit that swallows us up during times of crisis and heartache and how, when life comes crashing down all around you and nothing looks familiar anymore, the Pit is the only place you long to be. You want to be alone with your sorrow....feel the comfort and proximity of the walls around you and feel the familiarity of your knees wrapped tightly in your arms. It's a place of comfort....for awhile.

Right after Chuck passed away, I picked up the shovel to start digging my Pit. I wanted to be in that Pit almost as bad as I wanted to sit and eat an entire Becky-Arterbury-Buttermilk-Pie alone. But.....I couldn't. Every time I'd pick up that metaphoric shovel, someone would come up and say, "Come on, you need to go to coffee"....."Let's go to The Stand"...."Keep Moving...Keep Breathing...Keep Out of the Stinkin' Pit, Liz." And before long, the Pit lost its appeal.

And in the words of my friend Jack, when we look up from that dark quiet Pit of despair, we see a pinhole of Light. We see a roll-down ladder heading straight towards us...and no matter how deep your Pit might be, it is not too deep for God's ladder to reach you....and rescue you.

There is beauty in your despair. You just need to remember to look up.