When Crickets Cry

by Charles Martin

Emma once told me that some people spend their whole lives trying to outrun God, maybe get someplace He’s never been. She shook her head and smiled, wondering why. Trouble is, she said, they spend a lifetime searching and running, and when they arrive, they find He’s already been there.

I was learning that getting well and finding healing are two very different things.

With every wail, I paid penance for the guilt of my soul, for the sorrow that knows no end, and the shame that was me.