Things that travel
My friend Lori, a world traveler whose adventures I follow, recently posted a photo from the airport. It was an enormous collection of all that lost luggage at Southwest Airlines. Hundreds of suitcases, bags, tags. So much stuff misplaced. It made me think about the things we carry. Some heavy. Some light. Some necessary, some unnecessary. I think about what carries over from last year into this one. The things we take with us. Memories and experiences. I remember cancer.
The stark reality that placed every bright plan, promise, and possibility on hold. The fear that roamed at the gate. I remember the shock that paralyzed me for months past being told I was cancer-free. And grief that lasted longer than that. I remember children
I won’t carry.
I carry over the grief, but also the love I experienced. Soft landings. Safe dwellings. In the midst of uncertainty, chaos, dread.
Things that make eternal marks. Imprints. Lasting impressions
Like in our moments of helpless sincerity when we have no other choice but to really let us others see us. When we stand completely vulnerable. And all there is to say is “this is what I still struggle with. This is my battle. Here I am.”
The truth about what it’s really like inside the quiet, in the center of the dark times. When we invite a friend into those. I carry that over with me.
It’s been a year of defeating fear, which is a very long process because it hides in pockets.
It takes love to prove fear wrong. It takes love to teach that however deeply another experience has left you injured — there are safe hands and hearts that will hold you. But love must have a vessel. And Perfect Love does, indeed, cast out fear. But the vessel doesn’t have to be perfect. Not void of mistakes. No absence of missteps.
And Love has requirements — Communication. Vulnerability. Honesty. A willingness to participate. A willingness to see and be seen. Perfect means stable in its stance. Confidence in the person it’s intended for. Devoted to believing the best in the messiness of our human selves — the best about ourselves and one another.
It might sound like a tall order. But Love makes ALL things possible.
ALL things are possible. And new things come for us… New things do come.
I think about how where there has been loss there is also gain. Where there has been great struggle there is also strength. We know pain, but we also know love. And Love travels well. We carry it. It carries us.
Selah.