Overwhelmed with feelings...thoughts are flying much too fast
"Hoc est enim Corpus meum quod pro vobis tradetur."
How easily things get broken...
Laude laude Laudate
Haven't you ever seen an accident before?
Get it: accident? Clever, huh? Not me, but Bernstein...
A man said to the Universe, "I exist!"
"That," replied the Universe, "does not create in me a sense of obligation."
Hospital visits recently. I watched from the doorway a nurse remove bloodied bandages from someone who was moaning in pain. I watched the pair, that is, husband and wife, as they shared the pain of what had to be done....to survive. I was in awe of the great humility of that moment, in the midst of this Easter week, when thinking always, about Jesus...about the bangages, covered in blood...and especially about the love...in the wrapping and unwrapping.
(Lazarus even... "Lord, if you had been here, my brother might not have died."
Just try and tell me it's not true, that in her own polite way, Mary was yelling at Jesus for letting her down. I can assure you, with my x-husband's death last month, I find myself asking God the very same thing.)
In the midst of all that I observed from the doorway, these were my thoughts. The nurse saw me, which invited a chain reaction, and the husband and wife invited me in. The process was not yet complete. We smiled at each other, made a few pleasantries, and then as the nurse went back to his work, I asked, "What color are her eyes?" Deliberately trying to get the person in pain to focus on something else.
And without even understanding my own actions, I began to see an entire love story unfold.
Look into her eyes.
It is there you will find the strength
to survive.
Look into her eyes
and remember
all the things that made you
fall in love with her
that very first moment
you became helpless
and knew
without question
this one
was for
a lifetime.
In moments of great joy
and in moments of sorrow
Look into her eyes
and remember
when all that is said
and done
on this earth
when flesh rots
and photographs
turn to dust
the love
the being
of being in love
always survives.
Stronger than
any illness
any storm
any person who tries
to undo it
the love
survives.
In this present way of living
It is the love
That evens the road
Brings focus
And meaning
When despair
Tries to take its place
Look into her eyes
And you will find a way
To get up
One more time
To carry that cross
To believe again
That life has meaning
so far beyond living
and that love
however it is played out
survives.
Accidents happen. Things don't go as we might have planned. Pain is inevitable. We get lost. We think we know what we want, but we really don't know very much at all.
What we must do is love. Truly. Madly. Deeply. Then...all the other things of living...become sources of light...and the light...well, it changes the world...because it changes us...into human beings again.
Love, Cindy
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