Suddenly
Suddenly Unbidden. Unexpected. Unannounced. Suddenly. In the midst of weekly Saturday cleaning (ugh! but somebody's got to do it), the words came. "When peace like a river attendeth my way, When sorrows, like sea billows, roll; Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul." What? Never in a Millenium would I have thought I'd be humming those lyrics in my head, audible, lacking only music. How had they penetrated the steel bars and double padlocks I had erected after the sudden death of Courtney, my younger daughter? While I had not consciously built barriers, I had done nothing to stop them, either. Too tiring. Too useless. Meaningless. Long ago, I had given up. On everything. Oh, sometimes I'd go through the motions of leaving my self-imposed prison on furlough. I knew, though, I'd return to a cocoon made of impenetrable, tensile materials, all the more impregnable because feelings are just too mess