Some people love exploring caves. They crawl deep inside the dark holes and maybe see things no human has ever seen before. There are 50,000 known caves in the US and probably a million no one has discovered yet. Every year dozens of people crawl into caves and over a hundred die from falling or lack of air or they drown or get lost.
I'm afraid of caves. Unfortunately, our farm had a cave. I went into it a couple of times but was terrified. I told my children they could never go into the cave without their father or me . . . and of course they were always sneaking away to go to the cave.
Our cave was small. It was two rooms; about the size of two rooms in a house. The ceilings were about eight feet high. My children loved going into the cave. I was fearful that the cave would collapse or that they would discover a tunnel or more rooms.
I knew they would sneak into the cave so I put a box in the entrance that held "survival" gear. There were several flashlights, a compass, string, a bottle of water, white chalk and a whistle. They ignored my box and my warnings.
The Bible mentions caves 33 times, several people, including David, hid in caves.
Eventually, we sold the farm and moved. The children were sorry to say goodbye to their cave. I was relieved.
I love the bright, yellow sun. I hate the dark. I sleep with a nightlight.
I hate to admit it, but sometimes my mind goes into dark caves. I had a horrible childhood and didn't know what happiness was until I was married and had children. But sometimes sad, bad memories drag me back into the dark.
I try not to go there, I try to have faith, cherish the happy times of my life and never go back to the dark, frightening caves of my memory. I tell myself the dark memories are gone forever and to run to the light, stay out of the cave of bad memories.
I have a friend. Her daughter was a nurse who was tragically killed by a drunk driver. That happened two years ago. It was tragic. It was unfair that a drunk driver caused the death of a sweet woman who would have spent her life helping other people.
My friend cannot stop talking about the accident, the drunk driver and the death of her daughter. She's probably told the story a thousand times. Everyone felt sad about the daughter's death but that is all my friend talks about, and people are exhausted hearing about it. People just can't keep hearing about the tragic way the daughter died, and they avoid my friend.
My friend is living in a dark cave of anger and grief and self pity. She's driven her family and friends away, and she refuses to come out of the cave. She could honor her daughter by starting a scholarship fund for nursing students or she could volunteer at the hospital or do a hundred things to honor the memory of her daughter, but instead, every day, she re-lives the accident that took her daughter's life. She'll probably spend the rest of her life in a dark cave.
Ecclesiastes 3:4 says there is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.
It's hard to forget the past, and we have all been hurt, used and abused, lied to and betrayed by people we loved and trusted. We can't dwell on these bad memories. We can't go back and visit the bad, sad times of our lives.
We need to pile rocks in the entrance of those caves and put a "Do Not Enter" sign at the entrance.
Don't go back to the caves and dark places in your mind and heart. Come out into the light. Run into the sunshine. y
Crying Wind is the author of Crying Wind,
My Searching Heart, When the Stars Danced, Thunder in Our Hearts, Lightning in Our Veins, and Stars in the Desert. You can
order your copy at https://www.indianlife.org/store/.
