Hi friends, Donna here! I have included another gem from Katie on the difficulty of having friendships in prison. You become good friends and suddenly they are moved or released. There is no prior warning, no explanation, no questions answered. Just another hardship to endure!
Now, here’s Katie Woolsey, let me know what you think.
Forrest Gump; “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know which one your gonna get.” Oh yes, it truly is and sometimes you get the dark chocolate kind. Sometimes you have to taste and choke down the bittersweet ones. Those are the ones that make a face at a few seconds in but you end up going back to. Why? Because it’s still chocolate. It is what it is and it’s got it’s good parts like life does. I say I’m done, I’m giving up, but I keep going back to trying. In life you cannot get to the sweet spots it has to offer without the bitterness. Often you start out with life’s sweetness only to feel one step forward and 2 steps back. But then life hands you the bitterness for a while and just when it seems so bleak, you are able to see some light and make some lemonade with those lemons. Sometimes we need the bitter first, so that when things sweeten up again we’re more appreciative of better times.
I get tired of the ‘prison chocolates’ because they’re ALL bittersweet. I overcome and adapt to yet another overwhelming change and that’s when it gets jostles around. But that’s not the worst part, the worst part is when you start thriving positively because of the good people you run across. We say we won’t get attached because, well, it’s prison and we know the goodbyes will be incessant. Especially for us long-timers. But we do it anyway because we are human; just so incredibly, tragically and typically human.
God created humanity to thrive on Him first, but also with bonds, companionship. The majority of us are not the crime we committed. And I’ve come into close proximity with some heinous crimes. Strangely enough those people have been some of the biggest lovers of people that I have ever met. How can I not be drawn to them when this is the only environment I’ll know for a very long time?
You can spend weeks, months or even years with certain people; days filled with laughter, card games, heart-to-heart chats…it’s a thing, so routine. Then one day, they’re gone! And while you know you are in for a long haul of good-byes, it still hurts a little anyways. Even in prison we find our soul-mates I don’t believe that soul-mate is strictly a romantic label. I just don’t. I never will because I have been through an extreme amount of path crossings and am accustomed to the the good and beautiful in people. I’ve also seen the work of the devil in human form. So when someone such as I comes across that click, that jive, the peas and carrots…it’s indescribable. It’s a soul feeling only those two understand.
I can only find comfort in the promise God made to us in the book of Jeremiah. He without a doubt already knows the plans intended for each of us. And they are plans to give us a hope and a future. Not to harm us. (Jeremiah 29:11). So, with that, I have to hold onto that when it hurts to see people come and go. I have to believe that even though it hurts, the good that came from it is still greater than any hurt that followed. I have to believe that all these interwoven webs of paths crossings will all tie and play a part in the person I want to be. It’s way to easy to sink down and stay down. It’s too easy to fold and crumble under life’s pain. I don;t want to find myself renting out that kind of space again. So I have to hold onto that faith that there’s a reason for all this, for if I don’t than I surely have nothing. The goodbyes will be so many. They will always hurt. I’m certain they will never get easier. The sweet to the bitter is…through it all I’m NEVER alone.
“The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Deuteronomy 31:8
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