Sometimes, we experience difficult moments in life.

If you are breathing in and out, you will immediately know what I’m talking about—It’s a condition called life and we’ve all got it.

No one is immune.

Sadness, heartbreak, fear, grief and worry affect us all. And often when we are experiencing these challenging emotions, we feel the most alone.

I recently wrote about how love can fracture our hearts, and while it is painful, it is necessary. I felt that the article ended on a poignant, yet hopeful note.

To my surprise, a reader named Diane left a comment about the article which said,

“Whoever wrote this hasn’t had a heart really broken.”

Ironically, I have been feeling some heartache myself as of late. In fact, when I received Diane’s comment, I had just been finishing up this poem about the feelings of sadness, overwhelm and loneliness that I have been experiencing:

I Walk Alone

Mountain highs. Valley lows.
I comprehend the way life goes

I don’t pretend to understand
The rhyme or reason
For ebbs and flows of all life’s seasons

I bleed as red as anyone
When my life unravels and comes undone

And when I’ve had all I can take
Morning comes
Again I wake
Face to face once more
With unknown future

For uncertainty
Roams rampant; free
Essence of life
No guarantees

Under blackest night
Or brightest day
And all the shades that falls between

I look to the sky
And promise to never give up

Even if I walk alone
Even if I walk alone

And so, do I believe that we truly walk alone? No. I believe in something greater than ourselves. Maybe even something that emanates from a part of us that we are not mentally able to understand. It’s what makes us survivors.

While our minds are occupied with the business of trying to make sense of the complications which our our hearts feel, I believe our hearts are actually rejoicing. They continually beat no matter how we are feeling, celebrating that we are alive.

And so, I don’t feel that we ever truly walk alone. In fact, I think that our lone shadows look a little something like this, with a close friends of both the two-legged and four-legged variety (for maximum comfort).

Love elephant and want to go steady?

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Editor: Renée Picard

Photos: Courtesy of author.