It's Ok...

It's ok to feel so deeply it sinks you to the floor....

It's ok to love so deeply the loss takes your feet out from under you...

It's ok to feel, to grieve, to sorrowfully wail at the heavens, to shake fists and punch against the truth...

It sucks...it hurts...it decimates...it tears at the flesh and burns the dross away leaving purity of thought, of emotion, of wisdom and grace.

Beauty comes alongside to lift weary hands, to lift downcast eyes to the heavens...

The purity of that sunset hitting the Western sky on the way home...brilliantly full of colour and life...

The stunning beauty of that rainbow streaking across the sky after a punishing rain...

The inexplicably tall moose calf standing still to gaze in wonder at the human invading his forest...pluming breath blasting from nostrils flared to catch our scent...

The hug of the grumpy elderly man who hasn't let 86 years stop him from continuing to saw up lumber for our crew...pulled in close when seen again this year, and pulled in close upon leaving his property...expressions of love not asked for that fill the soul, freely given...

Oh the gems that God brings to us through tragedy, a voice calling out in the storm providing clarity, providing surcease and comfort...

My heart sits this morning in gratitude, in thankfulness for those few who know me and love me despite the flaws, the faults, the mistakes...accepted, cherished and loved.

My spirit soaks in the bounty of grace, of mercy, of love extended to me...undeserving, unworthy and sitting fully in a chair of humility.

I am reminded daily of reasons to live...I asked God to show me...and He did not linger, did not wait, did not sit in thought and tardiness...I cried out to the Father to provide a basis for my being here on this earth...and oh, how I sat in wonder, how I stepped in surprise and sheer awe at the works of His Hands as I heard, listened with a stuttering heart, a failing spirit, a torn soul, to words of affirmation...to examples of kindness from hardened, toughened souls walking this tiny hamlet of a town...to loving, comforting arms of forever friends who upon reading this will know that the words they expressed found a forever home within this tired heart.

This....love saves my friends...it truly does.

As I stand witness I think on what each one can do with a word, a thought...

Grace and mercy bring hope to the hopeless...

It is so easy to be kind...and we know not what it does for that person you smiled at, laughed with, spoke words of encouragement to...but oh, they do...they do.

Let us go today and each day forward with love, with thoughts centred on giving...

May God bless your days and nights...may He sit with you in the silence, may He comfort you in your pain...