Our year has started with a jolt. Rob’s dad was admitted to the hospital on New Year’s Eve with double pneumonia, and is now going through additional testing. There may be a more serious underlying condition.

Our lives are in flux. We are in the process of initiating another round of change, upheaval, adventure…call it what you will. STRESS! I feel a permanent knot in my stomach. Rob is spending a lot of time on the phone with his sister, who is with his mom and dad. There are a lot of questions, and so far few answers.

I’m reminded that life is frequently inconvenient, unexpected, impossible to plan for in advance; that we are all vulnerable: to accidents, illness, to events that are unforeseen. And how do we navigate?

I don’t have the answers. Does anyone? We look for hope and comfort in a variety of ways. Through faith, through others, through routine and ritual that keep us going on automatic pilot even when our minds are consumed with the struggle of the day.

Oswald Chambers said, “The strain is the strength. If there is no strain, there is no strength.” A good thing to remember at the beginning of the year, especially one that is starting this way.