Hope Floats

Photo I took at Montserrat, outside Barcelona in May 2011

She thought that she had never before had a chance

to realize the might, grimness and tenderness of God.

She thought that now for the first time

she began to know herself,

and she gained extraordinary hope in this

beginning of knowledge.

--James Agee--

If one ever wondered about the limits of our strength

and our ability to endure,

the experience of losing one's soul mate,

will tell you much.

Life is shaken to the Foundation and core,
and all that we Believe, Feel and Love are put to the test.

But, yet we Survive

And out of the terrible, rarefied self knowledge comes

 a new found empathy with all that we encounter.

- A sense of the Wonder -
 at the Suffering and the Beauty

this world has to offer.

As Grief envelopes us, we do what it takes to survive.
We tell ourselves we can't give up.
We attempt to understand the incomprehensible.
A futile grasp at making sense of the loss.

So what we have is our Faith
and the simple
realization
that

We know ourselves to be in this world,
We know we are part of this world.
We also know that it is out of our hands.
We can't manage it; we can't control it
But through the grace of God,
through the hardship, through the loss
through the tears,
We discover in our faith and lost love,
We are in the hands of ONE who can.

In this purifying and terrible wisdom,

may I feel the regenerating presence of

GOD,

for

Consolation,

and for

Hope.

A Mighty Amen