With Hectic Lives And "Traumatic" Injuries, Is The Sun Always Shining?

I have a book that talks about life, it's ups and downs, and the "dark clouds" that sometimes converge above us. I haven't read through it in years but I remember the title and main point. "The Sun is Always Shinning."

This has been a bit of a rocky week. Kids were sick and routines were thrown off. Adding that to the usual housework and schoolwork of my own, a current artwork project with a deadline, and a talk to write for Sacrament Meeting on Sunday, life was busy. 

Wednesday just before lunch I got a call from an unknown number. It was Taylor calling from the ER. He had cut his finger on a saw at work and his boss had taken him to the hospital. I left my kids with my mom and rushed over. When I walked in and got a first glimpse at his hand I wasn't sure what was going to happen to his finger. The top third of it was in bad shape.

The doctor came in, said the bone wasn't broken but had just been shaved, and went ahead and sewed Taylor's finger back up. He got somewhere between 15-17 stitches. He was so close to losing his finger! But he didn't. He will see a hand specialist in the coming week to see if his hand is fine or if there is anything more they need to do.

Taylor has been home recovering but has been in a lot of pain. It turns out that the body doesn't like to be cut open at a wood shop! We ended up going back to the ER at about midnight that night because the local anesthetic began to wear off and the pain medication wasn't helping. There they told us that sometimes it can be excruciating when the anesthetic wears off. Just like when your foot falls asleep and then hurts and tingles when it "wakes back up," his hand was experiencing that sensation, plus the pain of having been cut open with a saw blade. Ouch.

It's been strange for me since Wednesday. I see Taylor in pain and resting and it brings back all of my feelings from the past years when he was so ill. This time it is just an injury, and I he will recover. And yet clouds still hang over me?

I've been in a tired, grumpy fog for 24 hours, and so I ask myself, "Why do I feel this way?" Then I remember these verses:

"Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not." (D&C 6:36) And "Come unto me, all ye who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)

I've been distracted and discouraged, but I've been forgetting to look to the Son of God. If I look to Him, the clouds will still come and go but I will be able to see past them and feel the sun that is indeed ALWAYS shinning. What would I do without the scriptures that give me so much hope and strength?

So now, with that perspective I will "keep on keepin' on," and face the day with optimism. We got this. :)