Love is...

...a kind word...a shared glance...a shared thought...a comforting hand...a giggle over a funny quirk, an eccentric way...and still loved...still needed...

Love is...understanding....compassion...grace...forgiveness...mercy....

I had some qualms...not many really...being deployed to wildfires...new people and a lot of them...new faces...new voices...some with accents and crazy weird words and slangs...some purely northern BC but all fighting for something together. Coming together in an organized chaos and working toward beating back encroaching destruction.

What I found was this common goal...this strangely relaxed yet vigilant atmosphere...laughter and a sliding into a role I haven't done in quite some years. From the outdoor glory to people, planes, helicopters and large vehicles...constant noise and cacophony surrounding everyone all at once in a small area.

I feel tired this morning but so thankful for the opportunity and the testing of rusty skills...

I feel somewhat lonely this morning and yet with the knowledge that I am never alone...I am loved, accepted, cherished by the best of family, the loveliest of friends and a God who never forsakes...who never leaves...a constant presence in a crazy world.

Love isn't...ah dear hearts...dear lost ones...dear survivors....do we not intimately know what love isn't? Oh, we may hide our thoughts, even from ourselves...bury the truth deep but it sits patiently waiting for our perusal, for our release of that tightly clenched fist of denial. The truth rises to the surface...demanding to be heard...

I would come to you in love, in understanding, in grace and comfort for the battle you are waging...the loss of all that you know to be true, wandering in a wasteland lost and alone...never alone my friends...never alone.

I would encourage you to pull those truths up, drag them up from the depths of your soul, your spirit crying out to you...

Love isn't rage...

Love isn't derision...

Love isn't lies...

Love isn't physical abuse...no matter how much he apolgizes after...no matter how much he pours out the love to keep you there after putting his hands on you...love isn't this...

Love isn't betrayal...isn't cheating...isn't hiding the other people hovering around the edges...

Love isn't neglect...isn't abandonment...isn't inconsistent....love is CONSTANT....

Love isn't letting you cry at night knowing they are the cause and sleeping like a baby...

Love isn't using words and actions to make you feel small...

Love isn't verbal abuse...love doesn't name call...love doesn't use words to call you down...

Love is acceptance...love cherishes, holds up...holds high....love laughs at your silly ways in joy...

1 Corinthians 13:4–8 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

You are so intimately aware of what love truly is...why? Because you hand it out in buckets, in handfuls...you surround those in your circle with love, with grace, with an acceptance bordering on ludicrous...you know dear hearts...

I pray you go today and know your worth...know what love looks like and should look like for you...you are worthy of it....you are worthy of love unceasing, accepting, cherishing, upholding...

Go today and hold your head high warriors....speak your truth and see, truly see what is right...what is good...what is lovely...for you, for each one of us.

God bless you with his strength and comfort today and all days...