{Guest Post by Dea Daniels}
Our new gift-of-a-Labrador arrived within
minutes of the phone call. Two unexpected events. One, the arrival of cheerand
energy and a new beginning. The other, the announcement of a heartbreaking
trauma; a loss forever etched in a mother’s heart.
This
wasn’t the way of Wednesdays. This midweek day had
become a second Saturday. A mix of play and casual work and choice. But now, a
new companion within the family! Smile and cheer and focus. Yet now, my heart
breaking for my Sister, my mind’s eye envisioning her Night, my heart tearing
and bleeding with her body, with her beloved loss.
This post was supposed to be about bringing beauty in. We took a nature
walk last week. We collected acorns and rosehips and photos. There was a plan! But today, today has
not followed a plan of my own. Today has
been a mystery.
But
yet and now and always, we bring Beauty in…give Beauty back. Receive it.
Release it. Breathe.
It turns out, mysteries are entirely
suited for a walk {a breath, a prayer} within creation.
So we loaded up our gift of a puppy and I
loaded up my prayers and questions and we drove to the lake-park. The sunshine turned to shadows and we
felt the chill so deeply. We explored and ran and stretched. I slowed my steps
and watched them burst ahead; all cheer and boy; while I captured Light and
Shadow in lens and heart, and wept for my friend.
This is the draw, this is the gift. God
spoke His mysterious creation into being; us and it and all around. As we live
within it and suffer through it and lash against it and despise its limits, we
can yet retreat into it. This is the
Light. This is the Shadow.
So today, while my rosehips dry with
cinnamon oil and my Sister’s womb bleeds empty and my new pup rests near boys
without a clue, I breathe.
Breathe with me and with her: the light and
the Love, the air which some have not, the
Hope which is forever.
