I ran across a very special poem recently by Judy Brown that I’d like to share with you. The poem represents patience, faith and hope during those times of transition. I find it particularly meaningful that another term for for its title, “Trough,” is the word, “passage”. According to Merriam-Webster, a passage can be defined as, “the action or process of passing from one place, condition, or stage to another.”
Trough
There is a trough in waves,
A low spot
Where horizon disappears
And only sky
And water
Are our company.
And there we lose our way
Unless
We rest, knowing the wave will bring us
To its crest again.
There we may drown
If we let fear
Hold us within its grip and shake us
Side to side,
And leave us flailing, torn, disoriented.
But if we rest there
In the trough,
Are silent,
Being with
The low part of the wave,
Keeping
Our energy and
Noticing the shape of things,
The flow,
Then time alone
Will bring us to another
Place
Where we can see
Horizon, see the land again,
Regain our sense
Of where
We are,
And where we need to swim.
~ Judy Brown ~
Spirituality, Therapy, and the Good Life 
I don’t mean to shock anyone, especailly if this Judy Brown is your friend. But there was a Judy Brown who lost her life in a rafting accident on the New River this past weekend. Is this the same Judy Brown?
While I am truly sorry to learn that a woman has died in an accident, I am relieved to report that it was not the poet, Judy Brown.