We all have those times when everything bad seems to happen at once.

Your appliances break down. Your child gets into trouble at school. You get a speeding ticket and discover your registration has expired. An in-law dies. Your favorite tv show gets cancelled (as well as your vacation). You lose your wallet. Your best friend moves away. And the rain just won't stop.

You know.

I've been thinking about those times lately--not because I'm currently going through one--but because my daughter is and has been for at least two months. With more serious types of bad times.

The latest thing? Her favorite cat has been diagnosed with impending kidney failure and is now on dialysis. He's only seven (eight?) and these next two weeks will tell a lot about his future, whether he'll have one or not.

We all love Oreo The Cat. He lived with us for two years before Naomi moved to her own place and he's the most nearly-human cat we've ever known. This is hard on all of us, but especially Naomi and her former boyfriend and his brother, as well, who moved in with him when Naomi moved away last month. For Naomi, this has been one of those 'the thing I most greatly feared has come upon me' things.

We'd really appreciate your prayers if you are into praying for cats and for the people who love them.

And I'll just add this. Although we all hate those times when bad things happen all at once, I think I'd prefer that over something bad happening every two weeks all year long. We'd never get a break that way, we'd never have those stretches of a few months where we heal and Life feels so golden and sweet that we forget about those occasional weeks of constant hard times. Instead, you'd just begin to get over one thing and head into another, then another, then another. You'd almost feel like going through Life ducking your head all the time.

I'd never thought of it this way before, but rather, I'd just dreaded those occasional two or three months which will invariably bring along their share of annoyance, angst and sadness. But again, I'd prefer to get it all over at once, rather than live with one thing after another after another after another all year long, never getting a break, especially the kind of break only God can give.

And oh, how grateful I am that, during those times, He holds our hand and hugs our heart.