At a lunch in the park with friends.
In a crowded coffee shop with a coworker.
In a corner of the office.
The moment when an ever present smile cracks, a voice shakes, or eyes water.
Life isn’t always beautiful,
or smooth,
or friendly.
But my God, the hard moments are so much better, more useful, more…survivable… when we are honest about them.
It’s easy in this day to see the perfect in everyone’s life, and to believe that maybe your small, or not so small, struggles are the end of the world–that no one else has been there–so why are you? What have you done wrong?
It’s easy to speak blithe cliches
“Nobody’s perfect,”
“Everyone has their messy.”
is built in moments like these.
In the sharing of hopes, dreams, and goals, but also of disappointments, concerns, fears, and building faith.
In creating room for those we love to have their feelings, and in walking through the swamp land with them–not in helping them to build a house or set up camp and live there, but in letting the time be taken to move through.
All this sounds perhaps like rejoicing in sorrows… Not quite. Know that in your pain, there is hope. In your tears, new opportunities. From your struggle comes empathy.
“I will praise you in this storm,
And I will lift my hands.”
