May 13, 2023
“No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.”
– Maya Angelou
Do you remember when you were a kid and your mother said, “It’s going to be all right.”
Do you remember when you were a teenager, and the boy or girl you thought would love you till the end of time left you for someone else? And your mother said, “It’s going to be all right.”
It seemed like such an insincere and glib response to all your hurt and pain, and yet you wanted so very much to believe those words … that it was going to be all right.
Throughout her adolescence, Marge’s mother would say, “It’s gonna be all right.” Her mother may have believed it, but Marge didn’t. All she could think about was that annoying song from the ’60s by Gerry and the Pacemakers, where they kept repeating “It’s gonna be all right.”
You may have forgotten your mother ever told you that, but if you look back on life, she was right. Things somehow strangely and miraculously worked out.
And in our grief, it doesn’t seem like we can ever truly believe it will be all right again. Never.
“It’s going to be all right” was the assurance our parents gave us when we were confronting our greatest crises in childhood, our teenage years and our married lives.
Although you couldn’t believe it, you wanted desperately for it to be so.
Why? Because it is going to be all right.
***
It’s true what they say. The darkest hour is just before dawn.