moving forward

Everyone has been there at some point in life.  You’re dealt a bad hand – a very bad hand.  Maybe you lose everything you own in a natural disaster.  Maybe it’s a personal loss, a health crisis, a job loss or financial catastrophe.  A death.  Or some unfathomable combination of the above – but always something unexpected and completely un-welcomed.  We’ve pretty much all been there, and I think we can all relate to the sense of despair and even the darkness it brings.

I say this in the same breath in which I give thanks that my own life, at the moment anyway, is safe and secure and at peace.   Where all is well.   Where I am healthy, well-loved, and surrounded by those I love in the same circumstances – and completely conscious of how truly fortunate I am.

I made the decision to opt out of deploying with Red Cross for the disaster relief efforts in the wake of Sandy.  Personal schedule commitments made it impossible for me, but I have been glad to support several friends who are out there working hard to help.  I can’t do much, but sometimes a brief conversation by text or email provides a much-needed release from the stress in the field, and I am glad to listen and offer up some encouragement – maybe even a dumb joke.

Within days of my decision, I learned of a disaster that had struck a little closer to home – one that involves a beloved relative, aging and the cruel agonizing illness of a partner, and accompanied by its own form of hopelessness and breaking points reached.  I am not yet sure how, or if,  I will be able to help.  What I have to offer may not provide the relief that is ultimately needed.

Somehow, what always circles back into my mind as I think of all of my friends and family in circumstances where life feels impossible is this:  I want to take you for a ride on a bicycle.  It may be ridiculous I know.  But when dispair and frustration envelop you, when you become trapped in the tunnel-vision of despondency and desparation … I want to get you out of scenes of devastation and hospital rooms, away from beds and doctors and ruin, and I want to take you out in wide-open space with blue sky and clouds above.

I want you to feel the rest of the world and all of the beauty it still holds.  I want you to see that it is possible to move forward – even if it is only to the top of the hill – and to experience the effortless sensation of flying down the other side.  I want you to feel your breath and your heart still at work, and understand how miraculous it really is.  And even if it is only a brief intermission from the bad drama that will still be played out, maybe it will be just enough time to sort some things out, to unravel the tangle of knots that bind you – and to see that there is a way out of even the darkest tunnels.

For my friends, for my dearest M … I would take you for a ride if I possibly could.  Life is still beautiful.  Please believe.