We have emotional peaks and emotional troughs. It is a natural part of living that we experience these highs and lows. I don’t know about you but I have often found myself to be consumed by the feelings I experience during the lows of life. So much so that nothing else seems to exist , or even matter,  when in these depths of pain and/despair.

It is very easy to lose our grip on reality at these times of crises. We can’t ‘see the wood for the trees’ and lose hope of a resolution to the crisis very quickly.

I am reminded of a passage in the classic children’s book, The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. The main character, Bilbo Baggins, and his companions are lost in a forest and becoming desperate as there seems to be no end to the trees. One of the companions climbs to the top of a tall tree to see if he can see which way they should travel to escape the forest. On reaching the top of the tree, all he can see all around is an endless sea of trees and relays this to the others at the foot of the tree. They all quickly lose hope of escape. What none of them know is that they are at the bottom of a shallow valley and that the forest ends just beyond the lip of the valley.

I liken our situations to this. At the depths of our pain and sorrows, we are in the depths of an emotional valley, and no matter how high the tree we climb, we cannot see beyond the lip of the valley. All we can do at this point is to tighten our belts and carry on walking. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean there is no end in sight. Keep on walking.

“Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley.”

James Rogers (1875-1961)

Go on then, keep on walking.