Trial Number Five

Trial Number Five by Carol Lynn Pearson

Carefully they laid
Out on the table
Trials one, two, three,
Four, five and six.

"Choose one," they said.

"On, any," she cried, with a horror
Born of the best of Halloweens.
"Any but number five.
It would kill me.
I promise you I would not survive.

They thanked her graciously,
Escorted her out,
The gift-wrapped, addressed,
And labeled "Special delivery"
Trial number five-

Sent with love from
Those whose assignment it is
To make sure you know
That you can go
Through trials one, two,
Three, four, ninety-nine,
Or five-
And, incredibly,
Come out alive.

I've always taken great heart reading this poem when life seems to get a little bit overwhelming - when I'm at the point of thinking I just don't or can't handle anything anymore.  And things have started getting a little bit crazy here again.  Our household has gone through 4 1/2  months of "normalcy" and for that I am so grateful.  It's given me the opportunity to regroup, recoup and reassess what had happened the latter part of 2010.

In the last couple of weeks, Joe has started having medical issues again.  He's losing his balance, his blood pressure is going extremely low and he's having a moments of memory loss.  Since I'm still not working and get to spend a great deal of time around him, it's become very noticeable how some of these problems are increasing.

I'm beginning to feel more and more that the reason I've been unable to get a new job is so that I can be here to help Joe out while he still continues to recover.