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When my husband of then 18 years was sentenced to 70 months in a Federal Prison for wire fraud, I could not imagine life alone. After all, I had NEVER been alone - not really. I had always existed as an extension of someone else - a daughter, a wife, a mother - but never with my own identity. The first 48 months of what I laughingly refer to as our sentence (no one goes to prison alone) I floundered on my own, struggling to find myself. Then one spring morning, I picked up an old friend - one that had been abandoned long ago - my journal. I began to write - unceasingly - for hours at a time - lost in my thoughts, feelings and emotional battles. Through that process, God began to teach me. His lessons came in the form of quiet whispers to my soul as I sorted through the mess that we had allowed our lives to become without Him. There are many forms of prison and isolation - those with walls and razor wires, and those invisible prisons we awake to find ourselves in - prisons of our own creation that consume us when we stray too far from God's saving graces.I am emerging from my prison now, to the other side of life once more. While the journey is not yet complete (the fact that I am still alive is testimony to His unfinished work), I am at last able to turn about, face the past and harvest those lessons I have learned along the way. Those are the lessons I am compelled to share here. The most important lesson is that we are NEVER truly alone - our creator is always nearby, watching, waiting for the invitation to join us on life's journey. Every day I give thanks to God for having blessed me with such a difficult crossing to this new place, for without it my faith would not have grown.
