I love to take roads that are off the beaten path.  I call it getting lost on purpose.  Here is how it works; you come to an intersection and you take the road you know least about and you keep on doing it until you are lost.  That is where the magic happens for me, when I am forced to think outside the box, and am frequently rewarded by a happy accident.  Such were the events on this day when I found myself at a place called Hog Jaw Valley.  This forgotten place can be found located on an isolated road somewhere between South Pittsburg, Tennessee and Stevenson, Alabama.

        While riding down this road that time has seemed to have forgotten I spot an ancient church and graveyard.  Turns out that this was the site of a Confederate graveyard and this photo is really a collage of two photos I took at those graves.  The first photo is that of an Angel standing watch with hands clasped in silent prayer over this fallen warrior.  The second photo is of these beautiful blue flowers planted around the border of an unmarked grave.  Together these photos spoke loud and clear to me in this noiseless cemetery on how people in this humble community dealt with and expressed their grief.

        Grief is something each of us must face.  There will come a time in all of our lives when we will be forced to deal with loss, bereavement and the pain of an empty place at our tables.  How we handle these painful times and feelings that crowd into our thoughts affect us in a very dramatic and sometimes damaging way.  But the simple truth is we are all affected by this inescapable dilemma of the human race.  I believe that we could learn a valuable lesson from the people of Hog Jaw Valley; the art of expressing our grief.

        All emotions were meant to be expressed and it is not healthy to constantly suppress any on them, especially grief.  A suppressed grief chokes and seethes within us and multiplies its strength until the pain becomes too great to bear.  When we express our grief it becomes a medicine with the power to change and heal our broken hearts.  When we give our sorrows words and express our hurts with tears and deeds of kindness they transform into a healing potion for our wounded souls.

        I once overheard an obviously hurting person ask an old preacher a question that I have never forgotten.  They told a story of loss and guilt over loosing someone without ever telling them what they had meant to them.  Then they asked if there was any way to show someone that you loved them after they had died.  I remember the wise old mans answer, it still moves me to this day.  He said the best way to express your love for someone who has died is to be good to those whom he loved.  Seek out those who meant something to them and love them in honor of your fallen friend.  Expressing your love is a choice; do it today.

Something to think about:

• My attitude determines whether grief causes a disease in me or a glorious and everlasting reward.

• Do not ask the Lord for a life free from grief; instead ask for courage that endures.

• Faith draws the poison from every grief, takes the sting from every loss, and quenches the fire of every pain; and only faith can do it.

• What soap is for the body, tears are for the soul.

Thankful for the friendship that doubles our joy and divides our grief.
Rickey Moore