S is for Spiral

When I was a little girl, I loved going to the park.  I loved the swings, and the teeter totters, and the monkey bars.  I loved flipping and pulling and twisting and spinning on the pull up bars too.  But my most favoritest, funnest and bestest thing to do at a park, was to go down the slide.  And not just any slide, but the spiral slide.  I loved the thrill of climbing to the tippie top, standing on the edge, holding the bar and hurling myself down into the unknown.  Would I get stuck?  Would I crash into some clueless child playing at the bottom?  Would I go flying off when I reached the bottom?  And just where was the bottom?  That was the best part of all.  In a spiral slide - you didn't quite know when the end was there.  It could be after the first turn or the second - or maybe not even until after the fourth twist!  Oh how I loved playing at the park!

There is another spiral that has always intrigued me.  A spiral staircase.  A spiral staircase holds so much mystery.  It is always a feature in the best detective stories, especially when the setting is the 1940s.  They are grand, elegant, sophisticated.  One can always 'make an entrance' on a spiral staircase.  Can't you just see Lauren Bacall or Ingrid Bergman, standing at the top, looking down at the reporters, the suitors, the adoring fans below.  Can't you picture her as she lingers at the top, one hand softly trailing on the banister as she gracefully descends to the doting crowds below.  Her dress, flowing ever so delicately behind her as she steps, pauses, steps, pauses, never breaking her rhythm as she circles down, down, down to the bottom.

As an adult, the word spiral does not have the same fun and sophisticated connotations for me as it once did.  Generally now, when I speak of spiraling, I am usually referring to the sense of losing control - as in, my life is spiraling out of control. If we are, metaphorically speaking, standing at the top of a spiral slide, it is because we are about be thrown into a project, or a problem, or a situation where we do not know how many twists and turns there are going to be, or how fast we will go through the curves, or where the bottom lies. And often, it feels like we are being shoved down the slide.  Perhaps there is an illness, a job loss, or a unwanted relocation - most of these circumstances I would not walk into by choice.  But, just as a child can throw herself down a spiral slide because she knows her daddy is there, ready to catch her or help her through the twists and curves, we too can enter the spiral slides of our life with the same confidence because our Father is there also.

But some spirals in our life aren't slides where the ride is short and fast and unexpected.  Some spirals in our life cause us to feel as if we are on the top of a staircase, about to descend into a long, dark path that may take years to travel.  We could be facing the death of a child, or a divorce or a life altering illness.  These kinds of spirals of can be devastating and destructive.  Standing at the top, wondering if you can make it without falling head first and crashing at the bottom of the stairs has to be foremost in any one's mind who waits at the top of these kind of spiraling stairs.  But just like Lauren and Ingrid, we can descend the stairs with confidence- slowly, carefully, pausing with each small step to pray, to and make sure our footing is secure, keeping one hand on the scriptures for support just like we would cling to the banister, knowing that our friends are there, waiting and watching and encouraging us every step of the way.

So when I feel like my life is spiraling out of control - perhaps these images will serve as reminders that no matter the circumstances, no matter the path, I can make it.  With prayer, scripture and friends, spiraling never has to be done out of His control.