Saturday evening the three of us took a little outing to the local pumpkin patch with Drake’s sister, Danielle, and her family.  The kids had an especially fun evening playing in the bounce houses, riding tractors, and feeding animals in the petting zoo.  Before heading home we took advantage of the opportunity for some festive fall photos.  After the last picture of the evening had been snapped (see above), I jumped up on the hay bale to help Jessie down from her straw perch.  As I stepped off the bundled hay with Jessie Girl in my arms, my toe nail** snagged on a pumpkin and was completely torn away from my big toe…I will avoid the gory details except to mention that I was sidelined for about 30 minutes trying to keep from passing out.

What amazed me the next morning, after my wound had been cleaned up, is that it didn’t look injured.  The incredibly intense pain, my throbbing wound, this injury causing me to limp, was not even remotely visible.  Although the damaged nail may not have been apparent to anyone else, it still needed attention—washing, bandaging, coddling.

Similarly, so many pains in life, especially grief-related, are invisible…

But they still need tending to.

**It should be noted that I had just cut my toe nails that morning but decided to keep the nails on my big toes a little longer because I thought it looked nicer…oh, the consequences of vanity!!  🙂