We have a tendency to get used to stop signs. There is a place near my home, where there is a stop sign that is rarely noticed. People slow down, sometimes even pause- but very few people come to a full and complete stop. And someday- this is going to end badly. There is going to be an accident. Someone is going to get hurt.

When did stop signs become optional? When did they become something that we might see but not respond to? When did we become numb to what they mean? When did bright red signs stop signaling danger or caution?

Stop signs come in so many forms in our lives. And we have become numb to them. When our bodies, our spirits, our hearts start throwing their version of stop signs in our way, too often we continue to barrel down the road we are on. We forget to pause- assess the situation and figure out what the danger might be. We forget that when certain things start trying to slow us down to look and see if we are about to run into something or run over somthing. Often these stop signs come in the form of pain. Whether its heartache, or heart break. Times when our spirits hurt. We forget that the pain is often there to signal that something is amiss in our lives. We try to ignore the pain. Work through it. Bury it under our busyness. We forget that the pain is there for a reason. Often- its there to warn us to stop and slow down and see what lies ahead of us.

There was an episode of Grey's Anatomy that worded it better than I ever could.

"Pain. You just have to ride it out. You can olny hope it goes away on its own. Hope that the wound that caused it heals. There are no solutions, no easy answers. You just breathe deep and wait for it to subdue..."

Stop signs serve a purpose. Sometimes you need to stop for awhile until the danger passes. Until its safe to move again. Until you have a clear way to continue on. We need to start noticing the stop signs again.