I walked a mile with Pleasure;
She chatted all the way;
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow;
And ne’er a word said she;
But, oh! The things I learned from her,
When Sorrow walked with me.

Robert Browning Hamilton

This compact and impactful poem leaves little to be discussed. For as anyone who has been through times of plenty and times of emptiness knows well enough, we learn more in those quiet, sorrowful times. It is not that pleasure is all bad, or that we should run from happiness and fear joy. No, it is only that those good times, while allowing for much-needed rest, teach us little. But oh, how we learn in sorrowful times! Once the initial pain has washed away and the shock, the anguish has faded, we ponder in the silence. The flutter of our days has frozen for a moment, and we can reflect. We reflect on the good, the bad, the joys, and what brought us to Sorrow. And she is silent, for she knows that reverberation of the past says more than her adding to will do. Where we joined up with Pleasure for a time, she is much further down the road. But now Sorrow walks with us in our slow, silent march that we learn a thing or two.

Blessings to you and yours,

~Madelyn Rose Craig