I drove the long way home.

We have been married for 34 years and we dated for two years before that. As soon as we began dating we knew we were going to be good friends and the two of us have been a team ever since. Granted, he has traveled for most of our marriage, but when it comes to hanging out at the hospital you will usually find us together. It was a bit of a shock to hear that I was not allowed to drive him to the Huntsman Cancer Institute last week.

The last time I sent him away in an ambulance we had been married scarcely a year. He had undergone surgery to remove a bone tumor and the weakened bone had snapped while he was bowling. On that night I had followed the route of the ambulance for over an hour and spent several hours with him while he was getting situated, then driven the 1.5 hours back home in a blizzard. To make things worse I was pregnant with our first child but I didn’t know. Morning sickness was setting in and I had not yet learned how to manage it. I got home at 4:00 a.m. and hurried back up the next day to be with him. We look back on those days with a smile.

Therefore, as I sent him away in the ambulance last week we both knew that the best place for me was back at home where I could get a good rest. The hour drive home stretched out in front of me and felt very lonely. So, I decided to drive the long way home. This only adds about ten minutes, but it helps me avoid the freeway where the lights bother me at night and where there is more energy than I felt that I could handle. This is my favorite route and it eventually becomes a quiet, two lane road.

I thought that I would be lonely or worried, but I wasn’t. Not at all. Completely at peace.

Jackie loves to listen to music and has a playlist for every emotion. I was seeking peace so I took a page out of her playbook and blasted some music of my own. I played it loud enough that I could not hear myself singing along. I want to share one of my favorites, Abide With Me by Gentri. (Has anyone else become a Gentri fan yet?). I have listened to it every day since…

I don’t think that anyone else reading this is currently traveling in the dark down a lonely road while their loved one travels an hour in the opposite direction while struggling to breathe… but I know that anyone reading this DOES have troubles of their own, many of which are far more difficult than we are experiencing. Regardless of the trial, the source of Peace does not change. Abide With Me seems the ideal solution. Listen to the words, internalize the sentiment, experiment upon the word!

Help of the helpless, oh, Abide With Me!