No Longer Deserted...

"The Lord has made proclamation

to the ends of the earth:

Say to the Daughter(s) of Zion,

'See, your Saviour comes!

See, His reward is with him,

and His RECOMPENSE accompanies Him.'

They will be called the Holy People,

the Redeemed of the Lord;

and you will be called Sought After,

the City No Longer Deserted."

Isaiah 62:11

After a weekend filled to the brim with love, with grace and mercy, I sit in wonder...

When life contrives to steal your joy, comfort and kindness come through loved ones, through forever friends who have never left your side through the mess and mash-up life can be. Solitude becomes life...energy saving choices navigating you through those who would seek to bring down, to abandon, to neglect or to bring harm and destruction. Cut off at the knees by their own choices, their own judgements falling back upon their heads, hearts and minds reeling from the severing of ties.

No longer deserted....but full of life, of love, of laughter and kindness. Spending time with those who look past faults, loving you with all your quirks and quacks of personality; brings peace, brings comfort, brings confidence once more.

We have such power within our fingertips, within our words and actions to effect change...we have such a moment as this to showcase unconditional love, to show understanding of the heart and mind grown dim with torture, with abuses best left unmentioned for fear of 'looking for' attention.

Oh my friends...survivors only 'look' for validation, not attention, not for saving...they look to educate, to inform as they heal and grow on the rocky path of recovery. Never to harm, nor put down, in no way hurt others as you have been hurt....rather to love, to express sorrow and grief, rejection and outcast state, to speak truth with kindness but to speak it with intent, in love and compassion.

May your day bring you opportunities to love with grace and mercy...may you smile at that woman fading into the background at Timmies, may you speak words of encouragement to that young man struggling to find his purpose...so many, many opportunities each and every day to bring comfort and compassion, to change a life simply by accepting others where they stand...understanding that God is doing a work in each life...

May God richly bless your days and your nights with grace, with peace and comfort but more...with an eye for suffering in others...with a heart for the lost and alone...

May God strengthen the hearts and minds of victims stuck in heartless, violent relationships.

May God bestow courage on the hearts and minds of those who struggle to know their worth while being reviled for their light within that abusive relationship.

We stand together or we fall as a Nation...we fail or win based on actions, on a call to accountability within the justice system...

Let us stand together as one and see change come...see women and children protected (and any men in these horrific situations) from every form of abuse, of usery...

Go now, my friends, in peace and harmony...choosing life over ego, choosing kindness over cruelty...