As I drove to Grady Hospital in Atlanta a few months ago my mind operated on two different planes. Weaving in and out of traffic I kept up a constant conversation with God and with the voices in my head. I alternated between prayers for my brother and questions that I knew were unanswerable. 

I seem to be able to find a place of calm when in the midst of crisis.
I am like my mother in that way. 

Interspersed among the prayer and supplication and the worrying about my brother's condition was a running theme of whys and what the hecks.

Why is this happening again? How much more can he take? How much more can we take? What are the odds?

You can re-read the entries about Marlin's SECOND house fire, his injuries and his long recovery.

We all found out that we could indeed 'take it'.

Still, those questions remain lurking below the surface of my inner conversations.