My husband and I recently took a train to New York City. For many years we had traveled the beautiful Hudson Line along its namesake river and the turns, tunnels and stops had become familiar. This was our first time on the Port Jervis Line which originates in our little city of Port Jervis and travels through a totally different landscape than what we had been through before. I always love looking out the window to take in the changing scenery. The views along the Hudson Line had often been breathtaking. I wondered what we would see on our new venture.

When you don’t know what to expect, you don’t know what to look for. We traveled through woods and open fields and stopped at small stations in the middle of nowhere. Occasionally, the view would open into a beautiful vista, but in general there was a great deal of sameness to what I saw surrounding us. I settled into the rhythm of what seemed would be the rest of our trip. All of a sudden we entered total blackness. We continued to move forward. Our speed didn’t change, but there was nothing in view. We seemed to simply be floating in the void. No proof that we would ever come out of the black.  It came upon me unexpectedly. I wasn’t prepared for the darkness and as we continued through it I began to feel trapped. It seemed like we had been in this emptiness for so long. Where was the daylight? When would we see it again? I reminded myself that there was a definite point of entrance into this black and there would be a definite exit. We were still continuing on the track, still headed toward our destination and the gray that had turned into black would transition to blue sky again. I began to look with expectation for the glimmer of light that would signal our emergence from the tunnel. The trapped feeling began to lift as I regained my confidence that this tunnel would end and we would re-enter the daylight.

Life is like that, isn’t it? We are traveling along and all of a sudden darkness overtakes us and we wonder when we will ever see light again.