Wednesdays With Watson: Faith & Trauma Amy Watson- PTSD Patient-Trauma Survivor

Building Resilience: Navigating Traumatic Stress and Finding Hope After Hurricanes Helene and Milton

• Amy Watson: Trauma Survivor, Hope Carrier, Precious Daughter Of The Most High God • Season 7 • Episode 4

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Counseling Resources:

If you are feeling suicidal please call or text 988.

A free, 24/7, multilingual hotline that offers crisis counseling and support for people experiencing emotional distress related to disasters:
Call 1-800-985-5990
Text "TalkWithUs" to 66746
Spanish speakers can call and press "2" for bilingual support

Florida 211 Network: A 24/7 network that provides resources, including mental wellness care and local health and community services. CALL 211

Florida Disaster Mental Health Resources


Discover the transformative power of resilience as we navigate the complex landscape of traumatic stress following the fierce hurricanes Helene and Milton in October 2024. What if you could turn overwhelming stress into a catalyst for growth? Join us as we promise practical insights and strategies to equip you with the tools needed to manage the profound mental and physical health impacts disasters leave in their wake.

Explore the intricate ways in which stress manifests, from heightened anxiety and sleep disturbances to more severe conditions like PTSD. We unravel the signs that often go unnoticed, emphasizing the importance of recognizing these early indicators to prevent long-term health issues. Offering more than just theory, we introduce actionable strategies and resources like BetterHelp to support those without immediate access to professional care. By acknowledging these challenges, we position ourselves to better understand and address the cognitive hurdles that can arise during such trying times.

Finally, find solace in stories of hope and resilience, underpinning the belief in a higher plan that offers comfort amidst chaos. We highlight the significance of building routines and practicing self-care, from mindfulness and journaling to engaging in fulfilling volunteer work. Through faith and community, there's renewed strength to face uncertainty, reminding us that even in darkness, there are paths to healing and renewed purpose.

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You ARE:
SEEN KNOWN HEARD LOVED VALUED

Speaker 1:

I know it's all you've got to just be strong and it's a fight, just to keep it together, together. I know you think that you are too far gone, but hope is never lost. Hope is never lost. Hold on, don't let go.

Speaker 2:

Hey everybody and welcome back to the Wednesdays with Watson podcast. It is October of 2024 and this is a special episode dedicated to addressing the disasters that hit the southeastern United States, notably Florida, georgia, south Carolina, north Carolina and Tennessee. And then, just 10 days later, hurricane Milton made landfall 60 miles from where I am sitting right now. The devastation from both of these storms is unfathomable. The reason for this episode is to help those of you navigating this. Either you're navigating it firsthand, because you lost something in the storm, or you are like me you are navigating it vicariously, watching it play out in the community and on the news. So it is important to address both of your mental and your physical health, as these tragedies will affect us in both ways. Today we're going to talk a lot about traumatic stress in my attempt to help you navigate these disasters. Attempt to help you navigate these disasters, as many, many, many people are rebuilding their lives and then others are having compassion fatigue, as it's simply just too much for us to absorb.

Speaker 2:

Just as, by way of reminder, let's talk about quickly what traumatic stress is. So traumatic stress refers to the physiological or the emotional response that occurs after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. This can include, and often does include, situations that threaten physical harm, such as accidents, violence, natural disasters or the sudden loss of a loved one, which could have also happened in these disasters. Symptoms of traumatic stress we're going to talk about a lot, but can involve anxiety, depression, flashbacks, difficulty sleeping and heightened emotional responses. We're going to talk about all of that. It may lead to conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder if these symptoms persist over time. Many of you are likely walking around with an acute stress reaction, which is easy not easy, but it is fixable before it turns into post-traumatic stress disorder, and so we're going to talk about this today, and maybe somebody will be helped as we are navigating this. First, though, remember that traumatic stress, or traumatic response, is a response to events that are extraordinary, so it's a normal response to an extraordinary event, and I want to stop there, because many of you may not understand why you're feeling a certain way. Maybe you're like me, and all you did was you're a little inconvenienced, couldn't find gas, but everyone has the propensity to have a normal response to these extraordinary events, and that normal response is, in fact, traumatic stress, so I want those of you who are trying to talk your way out of the way you feel, or explain away the way you feel, or not even acknowledge the way you feel. Tell any guilt and confusion to have a seat, as your body and soul were only created for so much.

Speaker 2:

We talk a lot about the window of tolerance on this podcast. This is unique to each individual as the image bearers that we are, and this is why we don't compare traumas. Imagine that your capacity for life stressors is a balloon and has air in it. What happens if there's too much air? Right, it pops. This is a good description of the window of tolerance, if it is truly a window that is unique to you. And once you've exceeded the God given window of tolerance for stress and trauma, you will experience traumatic symptoms. The goal here today is to help you understand this and then why. Some of you may, as I mentioned already, have a diagnosis of acute stress reaction, but we want to help you fix that and address that so that it does not turn into PTSD, which is harder to treat.

Speaker 2:

So, first of all, many of you might be asking what parts of these disasters are causing me traumatic stress. That seems like a pretty Captain obvious question. They were two storms 10 days apart that did absolute destruction, but I want, for those of you who need to understand why you feel a certain way, I want to explain why these disasters are probably producing traumatic stress in many of us. First of all, is the extent of the disaster? In this way, the extent of the disaster was far-reaching. In particular, it went from Hurricane Helene affected everywhere from Florida to North Carolina, and so the extent of the disaster was vast in both of these. And the question becomes can you escape the repercussions of the disaster? Do you live in a neighborhood where everybody had to take their things out on the street? And so the extent of the disaster and how much you are in close proximity to it will predict whether or not you will experience traumatic stress.

Speaker 2:

Another predictor of traumatic stress, as it pertains to these storms, is the ability to meet your basic needs right, and so, for almost a week after Helene and Milton, millions of people were without power. Gas was, especially for the second storm, almost impossible to find, and some people, right now as I speak, are still looking for a place to live while their destroyed homes gets replaced or fixed. For those in Florida, with these storms just 10 days apart, many, many people are left homeless like that, they're also left financially responsible for finding somewhere to live. So see, this is a significant hardship, and one that is being played out in hundreds, if not thousands, of times. So this inability to meet basic needs, remember, takes the part of our brain, the prefrontal cortex, offline. That's the part where we make sense, we make logic, we make good decisions, and so a lot of people might be walking around on high alert, being ruled by their fear center, simply because this storm took away their ability to meet their basic needs. Another predictor of traumatic stress, as it pertains to these things, is if the event happened at night. Now, both of these storms hit Florida at night, and I imagine parts of Georgia, south Carolina, north Carolina and Tennessee also got either nighttime landfall or got early morning, and so if the event happened at night, we can predict traumatic stress. If there was any familial separation for any reason, planned or not, so if you stayed home and you sent your family to evacuate, that is another predictor of traumatic stress.

Speaker 2:

Another predictor of traumatic stress is the intensity of the media coverage, both before and after. I don't know what was being played out nationally, but I will tell you that I experienced significant stress. Merely fielding text messages from family members who didn't live here. Their opinions, while appreciated and made me feel extremely loved, stressed me out as I was making the best decision for me. But what they were seeing on the news I still don't know made them scared enough to pretty much harass me to evacuate. The media coverage for both of these storms was vast, as it continues to be. If you watch the intense news coverage some of us here in the Tampa Bay area did because it wasn't until two or three hours before the storm made landfall that we found out that it wasn't coming directly into Tampa Bay, so we had to watch the news, the tornado warnings and that kind of thing. But if you did that because you had to, then there is a good reason to believe that you have some traumatic stress. Here in the Tampa Bay area we actually have a weatherman who is not keen on scaring people. He operates in fax and that was helpful. But even he, as the storm came closer and closer to the west coast of Florida and I'm talking about Milton here was pretty grim and it was scary, and so the intensity of media coverage is a predictor of traumatic stress.

Speaker 2:

Here's another one that I found very interesting in my research If the storm affected you unexpectedly and so this would be like what happened in North Carolina, georgia and Tennessee Like that was completely unexpected, with the rivers cresting and roads, interstates breaking down and collapsing and those folks definitely will have reason to have traumatic stress, because they were expecting a tropical storm and they got a hurricane and a whole lot more than what they bargained for. And so if the storm affects unexpectedly, then we can predict traumatic stress. If you already have a history of traumatic stress, you're likely to have traumatic stress. If you already have a history of traumatic stress, you're likely to have traumatic stress. After events like this, your tolerance for these kinds of things are lower, and so you definitely need to pay attention to how you're feeling and what your body is trying to tell you. And then, obviously, if you lost your home or if you're displaced, you're going to be a prime candidate for traumatic stress. This is also true if you know somebody who died in the storm. Those are super extraordinary circumstances and are going to require a lot of attention so that you don't suffer long term.

Speaker 2:

The truth is, most people will recover and not have to worry about post-traumatic stress disorder, and some of you probably don't even have the acute stress reaction, but for those who won't fare so well with that, it's important to address this now. So, as I talk today and these things sound familiar to you, it's important to address it now in a way that works for you, your preferences and your resources. I know that not everyone will be able to afford to see a counselor or visit a site like BetterHelp or something like that, but I encourage you to look for community resources. I'm going to do the same and if I can find any, I'm going to put them in the show notes. But there probably are some community resources out there for storm victims, and so I'll try to put those in the show notes. But it is important important if what you hear today sounds like you that you address it by way of getting professional help.

Speaker 2:

The truth is that these events exceeded the capacity of almost everyone, and so all of you need to pay attention, whether it's compassion, fatigue or another facet of these events that are causing issues for you. You need to know that there is hope and there is help, but time is of the essence, as I've mentioned a couple times, typically, if traumatic stress is not addressed in a meaningful way, it will give way to PTSD, which this podcast covers extensively. It is not a diagnosis that's easy to live with and is very difficult sometimes to walk through. My desire for this episode is for you to stop, think and take care of you. So how do you know? If you're like me, you might just keep going and living off of the fumes of adrenaline, hope and optimism, but know this lurking in the background will be traumatic stress.

Speaker 2:

If you were affected in that way by either hurricane we never even lost power and the most inconvenient thing that happened to me is that I had to find gas. I couldn't find gas for like a week. Yet I'm experiencing symptoms of traumatic stress. Without question, my history of traumatic stress is in play here is I don't have the capacity that I used to have, or maybe never, never did have and chose not to address it. The bottom line is, even though I was not directly affected, I am suffering a little bit from some of these symptoms. I've had to take extra care of myself, sleep more, had to stop watching the news.

Speaker 2:

I've had to remember the words of John Eldredge in his book Getting your Life Back in a World that's Gone Mad when he talked about the term benevolent detachment. As Eldridge and many of my friends reminded me, I am on this planet to minister to my village, not the world, and certainly that is such good advice for such a time as this. For those of you, like me, who have compassion fatigue, it is very difficult to do this, but you're going to have to stop putting it in front of you. Stop watching the news. Help where you can. No doubt your church or somewhere local is raising some money to help hurricane victims. Help where you can, but stop watching what you can't fix.

Speaker 2:

So how do you know, as I mentioned, if you're experiencing traumatic stress and what do you do about it? How do you know if a loved one is experiencing traumatic stress? Well, here are a few things that you can know. One the first is physical symptoms. This is probably the first thing to come. This one might be the obvious, the most obvious of all of them, but it is also possible that if you're unable to feel bodily sensations and this is probably due to an adrenaline dump, and so you could be one of two directions on this you could be still running in what's called the heroic phase, where you're just running off of pure adrenaline and you're not feeling the emotional effects of any of it. You will, though. After events like this, we are made to survive. Many of you, if you've been around for a while, will remember that.

Speaker 2:

I give an example of a cheetah. A cheetah is the fastest animal on the planet. It can, and often does, outrun anything trying to kill it, but the problem is, at some point the cheetah runs out of energy and then is in grave danger of death. Think of your body running on adrenaline just like that cheetah. You will crash, and when that crash comes, it will not be pretty. So pay attention to your body. Schedule some downtime. Try to stay away from stimulating activity. Stay away from the tragedy if you can, so that your body can rest and digest instead of fight and run, because, you see, traumatic stress is played out in the body by way of engaging your nervous system and all of its survival mechanisms.

Speaker 2:

You may find that you're constantly on edge, and that's not who you normally are. You might be yelling at people in traffic. You might find that things are startling you that didn't startle you before. You might feel your heart racing, because it probably actually is, especially if you're running off of adrenaline, you may be experiencing GI issues that you didn't experience before. You may not have an appetite at all, or you might not be able to stop eating. You may be struggling to sleep. This, too, is connected to massive adrenaline and cortisol dumps after such events. Sadly, though, if your traumatic stress is not addressed, you could experience long-term effects to your immune system and even the onset of autoimmune disorders, and lately, research is coming out that even cancer is connected with traumatic stress because of that suppressed immune system when we stay in fight or flight.

Speaker 2:

It is important to understand that if this tragedy did not take your life and clearly, if you're under the sound of my voice, it didn't, if you're under the sound of my voice, it didn't If it didn't take your life when it happened, don't let it take your life now. If you are experiencing physical symptoms that aren't subsiding, you need to reach out for help. If you do not have a doctor, services like BetterHelp or other services that are easier to get into will be good for you. Like I mentioned, I will continue to give practical advice, especially at the end of this podcast, but do not ignore physical symptoms that were not there before. If they're not subsiding, the clinical definition is it becomes post-traumatic stress disorder if these symptoms last longer than four to six weeks.

Speaker 2:

Traumatic stress is also played out in behavioral changes, and so not just being on edge, but many of you want to know if some of the changes that you're seeing in other people might be related to this. And while this isn't bad, you need to watch out for yourself and examine yourself too, to see if the same thing is true. But if you're experiencing traumatic stress and are headed towards PTSD, we can help you mitigate those risks when you pay attention. So now we're going to pay attention to how it's played out in your behavior, because you are so worth it. You didn't come this far to come this far. So if you see a significant change in the way you're acting or behaving, anything a la character for you as you interact with other people, consider traumatic stress for you as you interact with other people.

Speaker 2:

Consider traumatic stress If there is an increase in substance use since the storms another big red flag, because that desire to numb or dumb down your nervous system with substances needs to be addressed immediately. With behavior changes and substance use only comes the increase of family difficulties. So remember, everyone experienced this in one way or the other. So none of you are the best versions. Family difficulties so remember, everyone experienced this in one way or the other. So none of you are the best versions of yourselves. But if difficulties inside the family or behaviorally are not getting better as time goes by, you need to consider traumatic stress and you need to consider talking to someone about it.

Speaker 2:

As I'm going to say, over and over, untreated traumatic stress in the context of familial situations can turn into abuse, and this may be the saddest part of it all. We saw this after COVID abuse in the home skyrocketed, and so that is something that is important is that with these behavioral changes can come short fuses and abuse, in addition to the hurricanes. For some people, it's hard to make ends meet in a time that we find ourselves, and that too can cause problems inside the home. Everyone's balloon is getting full and it won't take much for it to pop, and that usually is at the expense of relationships, and those behaviors, especially in the context of abuse, leaves marks, sometimes for generations to come. This is especially true if you already had trauma. You need to evaluate how your behavior has been affected. Provide for yourself plenty of grace for not being quite yourself, but also don't ignore it if it's not getting better.

Speaker 2:

Traumatic stress may also affect you cognitively. It might be affected after a trauma like this also affect you cognitively. It might be affected after a trauma like this and the time when you need to be on your best game and making decisions for recovery. You may find yourself having difficulties processing basic information. You may not be able to think clearly. Your short-term memory may be shot. You may have unwanted memories from the storm intruding into your consciousness without your permission. You may have nightmares about the devastation. Some of you may question your faith. All of these are normal reactions to these extraordinary events and not to be left untreated.

Speaker 2:

There are other things to evaluate when you consider getting help. If you are having difficulties at work or school, this is your body and mind trying to get your attention and obviously, if you have any suicidal thoughts in any way, please reach out and get help. That in particular, please dial or text 988. You are so worth it and this planet needs you. Your story matters and it's not over yet. So if you're having suicidal thoughts in any way, you must immediately get help because you matter. It is also possible that some of you will have an extreme, delayed reaction. In other words, you're saying to me none of this is happening to me right now. I must be good, watch out for the delay. Sometimes these kinds of tragedies require us to stay in cheetah mode. So watch out.

Speaker 2:

When things begin to feel normal or safe again, some people will begin to display traumatic stress then, and these are the cases where professional help is also warranted. So, besides reaching out and getting help, besides the things that we talk about on this podcast between church, community and counseling, what are some practical things you can do as you begin to recover from these traumatic events that happened within 10 days of each other? There's several things you can do, and this certainly isn't an exhaustive list, but the first one does speak to the community aspect of this podcast. Connect with others early, often and frequent. Sharing the experience is therapeutic on its own and it helps you feel less alone to know that others have shared the experience and, even better, there are people who want to talk about your experiences, who want to listen to you.

Speaker 2:

It's also important right now to establish routines, especially if your normal routine has been interrupted because you're living in an Airbnb or any number of things. Often, these events produce traumatic stress because of the routine is interrupted, and so quickly, as quickly as you can, establish some sort of routine. Wake up at the same time, go to bed at the same time, try to create things that are familiar to you, since the landscape changed for much of us, and so, in any way you can to make your environment as as close as it was before. It is important to do that. So follow routine and follow some routines and set a routine, and your brain will thank you, you know. The other thing is, self-care is a buzz word right now and maybe overused, but you need to self-care, we all need to self-care. We've all been through a lot, and I'm just talking about the storms, not even the upcoming election or anything else going on in the world right now. It is dark out there, and so it's important for us to take care of ourselves.

Speaker 2:

Prioritize downtime. Find something that you like to do that takes you out of the situation, even if it's for 30 minutes. I love the adult coloring books, anything like that, where you're using your hands and nothing that plugs into a wall. Get away for 30 minutes to an hour so that you can just calm down your nervous system and your brain. Get plenty of rest. Drink more water than usual, eat more healthy than you normally do, take a long bath, go for a walk, watch a funny movie the other day not necessarily a funny movie, but I downloaded and watched Inside Out 2.

Speaker 2:

Things like that, things that you know are going to make you feel good or make you laugh, even when you don't feel like it. You will feel very guilty about this, because life has become so unraveled, but it is one of the ways you will survive this with the least amount of psychological damage. Right along with self-care and certainly as a Christian, this is more important to us, and we know how to do it. But it's mindfulness or prayer time that will allow us to focus on the truth of what is, and not what our traumatic stress wants us to believe. Mindfulness is simply taking time to stop and pay attention to what is, and not what imaginings we have or what things that need to be checked off of a list or the flashbacks or the film strip that is in our brain. Mindfulness keeps us in the present moment, knowing that we are safe right now and that we have a God who is on the throne and has not abated his power because two hurricanes hit For the Christian, this intentional prayer time will help your body and mind as we are promised peace that transcends all understanding when we stop and trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and we stop and we lean not into our own understanding, and we stop and in all of our ways we acknowledge him and he will direct our path. The Bible tells us be anxious for nothing, but in everything. My prayer and supplication lets your request be made known unto God so that you may have the peace that transcends all understandings will guard our hearts and mind in Christ Jesus. And so mindfulness of prayer time is an excellent way to treat and mitigate the damages of traumatic stress. The fact of the matter is, if you don't take time to shift out of the go mode that you're in for whatever reason you're in either hurricane recovery or just go mode period you will not be able to recover from traumatic stress if you don't take some time off. If you're like me and your home was not affected, one way to relieve traumatic stress is to do something for other people volunteer.

Speaker 2:

One day after the hurricane, I was filled with anxiety and compassion, fatigue, and I have a friend actually several friends whose houses did flood, but this particular friend had brought everything that they could salvage, and by way of clothes and things like that, to my house, and so we did their laundry and help them with FEMA and all the other things, because they were definitely having those cognitive effects that I told you about, about traumatic stress. They just kind of deer in headlights as it pertains to everything that needed to be done. So, anyway, we had their stuff at our house, and that day I was just riddled with anxiety, and I was riddled with stress and all the things. Found myself, though, hovering over my bathtub with my favorite Taylor candle, laundry detergent not sponsored, but should be in the bathtub with all of their stuffed animals. And some of these stuffed animals were their grandkids stuffed animals, some were my friends when she was little, and so I just wanted to try to get the smell of the Gulf of Mexico out of these prized possessions, and as I was doing that, suddenly I didn't feel anxious anymore. Suddenly, it was not about me. Suddenly my brain was happy because it was doing something instead of just ruminating over what was going on.

Speaker 2:

So volunteering in any capacity helps your brain because you are doing something for somebody. If, even for a second, you feel anxious, a little bit of that loss of control, go away because you're doing something. There certainly continue to be plenty of places to volunteer, not just in Florida, but in all of the areas that are affected. Another way to help with your traumatic stress is journaling, because you will likely look back at this event and not remember a good portion of it, and so processing your emotions on paper that you cannot articulate or maybe you don't even know that you have, is a really good way to journal, and if you can, one of the ways a brain hack on this is if you can write at all with your non-dominant hand. Journal with that non-dominant hand, because it clicks the brain out of fight or flight mode when you are using the other part of your brain than you normally use. You also need to focus on basic needs for yourself. Keep it simple Three hots and a cot for a while. What does that mean? Three solid meals and a good night's sleep for a good amount of time. Eat your vegetables and sleep more than you think you should.

Speaker 2:

Another thing is to participate in community events. This gives us a sense of community that is so important to traumatic healing. This Saturday our church is having its annual trunk or treat at our main campus, and there was some question as to whether we should have it or not, because fewer than two miles from our main campus is an apartment complex where I believe is lower income housing, and these kids that live in this apartment complex go to a school that our church also supports, a public school, and that apartment complex was so flooded that it was the largest water rescue in the history of our county, and so we wondered when it was time for Trunk or Treat to come this year, should we still do it? Because these families don't even have a place to live, many of them in shelters and displaced, and so our community so heavily affected, we wondered whether it would be appropriate to still have this community event, but we're going to have it because our church leadership sees the wisdom in getting back to normal as quickly as possible.

Speaker 2:

Find events like this in your community, where you can be around other people and feel that sense of community and finally I've said it many, many times get professional help. I will link some resources in the show notes for that, but it is important that you talk to somebody and that you process this so that you don't suffer long term, because if you are struggling, remember that recovery is a process. You need to give yourself a lot of grace and take as much time as you need. Your body and your mind are merely yielding a normal response to an extraordinary event. You were made to respond exactly how you are. If you were affected by these storms, please know that my prayers are with you, but mostly it is my prayer that you will not have to add insult to injury by becoming psychologically damaged by this long term. It's simply not the way the story has to go. Your community of people are here for you. We are here for you. Some of you will need extensive counseling after this and others will move on like it never happened.

Speaker 2:

Remember this isn't a measurement of how psychologically strong you are. It's a reflection of how God made you Speaking of God, as Mama Bootsy always said. You Speaking of God. As Mama Bootsy always said, god is not wringing his hands in heaven over this. The truth is and this might serve to cause some issues for some of you, but work your way through it, because the truth is is that God could have calmed these storms with his voice because we know that even the winds and the seas obey him. He chose not to do that and it's incumbent on us not to waste a tragedy. Nothing could be worse than it already is if we didn't grow as a people, as a community and in our faith after something like this, as I mentioned, not even talking about these hurricanes. This world is dark, there is no question. A couple hurricanes are just a drop in the bucket, but we we have a God who sees, a God who heals, a God who redeems.

Speaker 2:

Recently, I heard the story of someone who did lose their house in the first hurricane and then, just about a week later, lost her father to a long illness. She was quoted as to say a week later lost her father to a long illness. She was quoted as to say Romans 8.28 is still true. When I first heard that, I almost rolled my eyes because this verse is so overused and sometimes weaponized for those in pain. But she used the verse like it's supposed to be used and it sends chills down my spine after I speak this. After a hurricane took her house and a long-term illness took her father, she said God is still working. All these things were my good. Can you absorb this with me? Trust me, this is hard to say, but I believe it. My friend whose house had four feet of water in it, the one who is displaced. God is still working it out for her good because he is for her, not against her.

Speaker 2:

My childhood stomping grounds in western North Carolina is unrecognizable. People lost their lives and their livelihoods. Some of them still don't have water and electricity, but my God will still work it for their good. We may never see it, but God doesn't waste a tragedy. The biggest tragedy would be if we wasted these tragedies.

Speaker 2:

This has been a difficult episode to write and record because I have a 360 degree view of the devastation in my beloved home state of Florida. I know people that have lost everything. Many of us were traumatized because of these storms were scary for us. I was one of them. I was shocked at how much these storms brought up unresolved trauma and fear, so I do not publish this episode lightly. I do hope that it serves to help someone navigate these disasters. I am grateful to call the master of the wind and the seas my Jesus, my Lord, my Savior. I may not understand his ways, but we know his ways are higher, and so I will go higher too and seek him in this tragedy. I will find him there, so will you, and when we find him there, we know it's going to be okay, because in this already but not yet world that we live in, one day all things will become new, all the sad things will become untrue. But until then, we will live on this planet with our Jesus, and we're going to be okay.

Speaker 1:

You're going to be okay. Just remember that you are a fighter. A fighter. You never know just what tomorrow holds. And you're stronger than you know. Oh, you're stronger than you know. Oh, you're stronger than you know. Hold on, don't let go. Yeah, hold on and don't let go. Just take one step closer, put one foot in front of the other. You'll get through this. Just follow the light One step closer, one foot in front of the other. You'll get through this. Just follow the light in the darkness. You're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay. When the night is closing in, don't give up and don't give in. This won't last. It's not the end. It's not the end. You're gonna be okay. When the night is closing in, don't give up and don't give in. This won't last. It's not the end. It's not the end. You're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay. You're not alone, never alone. You're gonna be okay.

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Amy Watson

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