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| Image Credit: SilentEchoDesigns |
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
But what I have learned since sharing my birthday with a memorial these past 13 years is that life will never be simple. It will always be bittersweet. On any given day, it is someone's best day and someone else's worst day. Everyday a person is born into a family, while another family loses a loved one. The thing about living in community, is that we have the opportunity to share our bitter with someone else's sweet and vice versa - and it can happen all at once. And that, my friends, is beautiful. Today will always be my birthday and today people will purposely never forget what terrorism looks like. It's a package deal.
And that is okay. We don't like things to be murky. We like to be able to categorize people, events, ideas, and memories into one category. Good or bad. Joyful or sorrowful. Hero or villain. A celebration or a memorial. The truth is, the more trips I take around the sun, the more I realize joy and pain are flip sides of the same coin called love. The only way to stop from feeling either is to numb your heart to love all together. But a life without love is hardly a life at all.
If I am honest, life has been a little more bittersweet than I would like lately. I have shed more tears in the last few months than I can remember doing for some time. My heart is so heavy with the turmoil that I see all around me. From racism to domestic violence to war ravaged countries to watching loved ones and leaders fall. This world is full of bitter. Saying goodbye to good friends, starting over, releasing my daughter one step closer to adulthood are all things that weigh my heart down. But if you look closely, hope will always draw a sweet silver lining around bitter. A promise of a new tomorrow, a chance for people to listen to stories and find solidarity in the midst of racial and domestic violence, a new understanding of grace for the imperfect and broken, and the realization that goodbye offers an opportunity for a new hello.
I've often wondered why I feel so much and wrestle so much. In the midst of my tears and heartache I finally realized a truth that I missed for so much of my life. It is because I love. I don't hide my heart away behind walls of indifference anymore, and an open heart comes with the inherent risk that for every joy there will be sorrow. For every birthday, there will be a memorial. But the most beautiful thing about a memorial is that it gives us a chance to choose gratitude, and in doing so we mingle some sweet in with the bitter. Today is my birthday, and I mourn with those mourning. But I rejoice that I can - at the same time - celebrate life in all its fullness. On days like today, I ask you to hug your loved ones, call the people you miss, forgive the people who have wronged you, say the things you have been meaning to say, and to spread love far and wide. Because life is fleeting and our time here is short.
I will never forget. I will always remember the price of loving and living well is bittersweet.
If I am honest, life has been a little more bittersweet than I would like lately. I have shed more tears in the last few months than I can remember doing for some time. My heart is so heavy with the turmoil that I see all around me. From racism to domestic violence to war ravaged countries to watching loved ones and leaders fall. This world is full of bitter. Saying goodbye to good friends, starting over, releasing my daughter one step closer to adulthood are all things that weigh my heart down. But if you look closely, hope will always draw a sweet silver lining around bitter. A promise of a new tomorrow, a chance for people to listen to stories and find solidarity in the midst of racial and domestic violence, a new understanding of grace for the imperfect and broken, and the realization that goodbye offers an opportunity for a new hello.
I've often wondered why I feel so much and wrestle so much. In the midst of my tears and heartache I finally realized a truth that I missed for so much of my life. It is because I love. I don't hide my heart away behind walls of indifference anymore, and an open heart comes with the inherent risk that for every joy there will be sorrow. For every birthday, there will be a memorial. But the most beautiful thing about a memorial is that it gives us a chance to choose gratitude, and in doing so we mingle some sweet in with the bitter. Today is my birthday, and I mourn with those mourning. But I rejoice that I can - at the same time - celebrate life in all its fullness. On days like today, I ask you to hug your loved ones, call the people you miss, forgive the people who have wronged you, say the things you have been meaning to say, and to spread love far and wide. Because life is fleeting and our time here is short.
I will never forget. I will always remember the price of loving and living well is bittersweet.
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