Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.
I have discovered that I value connections. When we are willing to be vulnerable, we can trust others with our stories. Trusting someone with your story takes courage, but the reward is love. Making connections through story creates a bond, not only with the other but also within yourself and your own self-worth.
On Sunday, I made a connection with words from the Bible. Part of the reading from Romans was this, “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.” Romans 5:3-4
I am writing a verse novel with the working title of “Hope is our Song.” Immediately when I read these words, I chose them as my epigraph for the book. I spoke with the young priest after the service about his sermon. His words resonated with me and will connect with anyone who has suffered.
I am unable to give you an answer as to the why of human suffering. I cannot answer the age old question why do bad things happen to good people?However, I see in the Trinity how we get through such suffering- we get through such suffering, we make such suffering meaningful, because of our love for each other.–Seth Walley
Love is communicated through connection, through our shared stories, through our empathy toward one another.
My friend shared her new favorite book, Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas by Rebecca Solnit. I had just that morning been listening to On Being, an interview with Rebecca Solnit.
Again, the word hope pops up and these words from Rebecca Solnit speak to me.
I wrote a book called Hope in the Dark about hope where the — where that darkness was the future, that the present and past are daylight, and the future is night. But in that darkness is a kind of mysterious, erotic, enveloping sense of possibility and communion. Love is made in the dark as often as not. And then to recognize that unknowability as fertile, as rich as the womb rather than the tomb in some sense..
In talking to my friend and making the connection between the Bible verse, her new book, the podcast I was listening to, our conversation was rich with meaning. She advised me to pay attention. The universe is speaking to me. This blog post is my way of taking note and paying attention. I celebrate connections.
Reflections on the Teche 