Switchbacks up the mountain can mean so many things. I think life in general is a continuous road where we travel up and down the mountain. Sometimes it’s more like an easy hill that we climb and where life seems to move forward at a nice pace. But then there are those times where the road going up the mountain is so narrow and steep we feel we might fall off the edge plummeting to the ground below.

I know that first year after Mari died my life felt more like the later. It felt like at any time my life would come to a crashing halt. It seemed so bleak. It was hard to find the positive in anything. During this time is when the “Footprints in the Sand” poem really made sense and how God became my guard rail as I traveled up the very steep climb out of the tragedy from the Summer of 2008.

It has only been through His grace that I am where I am today. As a parent who’s lost a child, I can’t imagine not having Him in my life as He is the one who helped me to get through. People always comment on how strong they think I am. But I’m not, really I’m not. It’s God who’s given me the strength to continuing living each day. I’ll always miss my beloved little angel but I’ll be okay. I don’t think anyone would think otherwise.

For me, I’m just glad the switchbacks have significantly slowed down and my course is more back to being like hills.