a year in song: i hurt too

when the lies speak the loudest;

when your friends are starting to leave;

when you're broken by people like me.

i hurt too.

this is one of those songs that haunts you. katie herzig's voice gets right inside your head and there's no room for anything else. and in those dark moments, when nothing in your life is the way you thought you wanted, it's every bit as hard to hear the hope in this song as it is to imagine that what you're going through is just practice for all of the wonderful things that lie ahead.

one year ago, i was just beginning to accept that my personal difficulties of the year before weren't the end of something as much as they were the beginning of something else that i just didn't know yet. someone told me once, "fairytales don't start with happy endings." and thank goodness they don't, because otherwise i'm not sure we'd quite comprehend how to appreciate the fairytales once we find them.

even though you are drowning in valleys of echoes,

i believe there is peace in those hills up ahead.

you will climb 'til you find places you'll never let go,

and i will also be here praying just like i said.