For ten dollars, you can spend the day sifting through 37 acres of plowed field in Arkansas searching for gems at the eighth-largest diamond producing volcanic crater in the world. Any diamonds you find are yours to keep. I spent the day there without much success.

There were simply not enough hours in the day. One answered email prompted multiple responses, which then needed to be addressed. Multiply that by hundreds of emails waiting in my inbox. The aftermath of a huge event had taken its toll. Fatigue and exhaustion had engulfed my body.

Six hundred forty miles separated me from my parents. It’s hard to get an accurate picture of the real situation from that far away. The winter before, my father had been put on life support but made a miraculous recovery. Each day was a gift. I listened carefully to the description of symptoms.

Years ago, my husband and I worked with singles in our church. One of our social outings was a river canoe trip. One year my friend Melinda and I were paired in a canoe. It was a great day. The sun was shining. We proceeded without major incident until the very end of the trip.