Some days are diamonds some days are stones....

“Some days are diamonds, some days are stones...” Yip, John Denver coined it quite well.

Saturday morning found me with two friends eagerly awaiting the Go Siren of the 5km ParkRun - which, by the way, I walk but still call the ParkRun 😉. Monday night I was elated after being able to join the Pilates class again after a lapse of several months. I was just so happy to be able to move, get fresh air, walk and talk and get the muscles going again. Diamond days, I guess.

But grief has a way of sneaking up on you in the most unexpected ways. Stone days. Just as you think you see a glimmer of a maybe shiny diamond it turns out to be a stone. Sunday was definitely a Stone day....
I was quietly sitting in church minding my own business, when suddenly I saw someone struggle to pick up the microscopic communion wafer. In the span of just a few seconds I went from elated and coping to well, ...Not. First I just watched, then I wanted to rush forward and help, but in the end I needed to run out and I just made it to the car before a flood of tears overwhelmed me. So many memories flooding back that I just could not control. Memories of other hands struggling, fingers that wanted to but couldn’t grasp anymore. Grief literary overtook me. Stone days.

And just like John Denver sings...You ask me how i’m been without you and i’d like to say i’ve been fine and I do, but we both know the truth is hard to come by....some days are diamonds and some days are stone.
And this picture of diamonds and stone makes things so much clearer to me. Days are not just full of Stones. Neither are they just Diamonds. And in a way both have their use. And it’s good to be reminded. Nobody on earth has only Diamond days, nobody has only Stone days. Life is a mix. Living and trying to live again through grief is a mix.

So I take the stones and I take the diamonds and I embrace them and what they represent. On those stones I walk and remember - the bad but also the good. On those a Diamond days I rejoice that I do have a new perspective on life and how short it is and to make Life count. Stone days can knock the wind out of you. Diamond days can take your breath away. So, I just breath.

And on those Stone days I remember that God said that He will never leave me nor forsake me. And on the Diamond days I look up and thank my Father for the Hope He always brings.