What in your life has given you the biggest heartache? (Hey, I didn't promise just to ask the easy questions...)

-- Al Schroeder (al.schroeder@nashville.com), October 22, 1999

Answers

Oh yes, this is something each of us humans has in common. It is fun to share the joys. But heartaches? Some would rather not even talk about it, fearing it will rip not completely healed scabs open. Some only make oblique references to them. And others find great comfort in page after page of catharsis. But whatever our coping style, have them, we all do.

Somehow we pull down deep inside the best of ourselves and cope with those problems. We wonder how much growth we've had is due to wrestling with heartache. Somehow, we find, as I remember quoted somewhere, "Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one thing is possible, not to run away" (I think Nag Hammeradi (sp?) said that. So we don't run away. We stand there, and we find ourselves stronger than we imagined. Knowledge of this strength gives further strength. We'll get by, we will.

-- Joan Lansberry (gallae@casagrande.com), October 23, 1999.

Leaving my husband. I know that I did what I had to do, but I also know that never in my whole have I ever hurt someone more profoundly. I don't feel regret, but I feel my heart ache. (http:/ /www.nucleus.com/~annelie)

-- Annelie (annelie@nucleus.com), October 23, 1999.

the course my oldest daughter's life took from graduation from high school through her marriage, a still birth, divorce, schizophrenia and suicide attempt. many details, too many to go into now, the only good thing is that she is happy in an assisted living home.

-- ici jongleur (ionoi@webtv.net), January 05, 2000.