Promise Keeper...

Up and out at 0400 this am while my coffee seeped to gather more firewood and stoke a low fire...crisp, -35 dry air that sucks the breath from your lungs and freezes every surface visible to the elements...dear hearts it is a good time to be alive. Invigorating, life giving cold air reminding you of life, of death, of the challenge of Mother Nature and what she throws your way, hoping to catch you unaware and unprepared.

The sky that greets later this morning is the palest of blues with streaks of pink and purple winging across the eastern sky...as I gather and toss I see my neighbours truck warming up and take a moment to thank God I'm not working in this deep freeze, adding a prayer for his safety and day.

I sit this morning in a ridiculously cozy home, sip coffee and close my eyes on the first hot, wonderful sip. Living in the moment...taking every pleasure with humility and a surfeit of gratitude. Yes, each day has its highs, its lows, its adrenaline pumping moments, and its moments of peace, of grace, of just being....

We do the work dear hearts...and it pays in dividends unexpected and gracious, full of love and joy, understanding compassion and kindness, accepting my place in this world has changed, morphed, altered perhaps forever and sliding into a kind of peace heretofore unknown.

This is the light at the end of the tunnel dear treasures...a light of such warmth it envelops you where you stand, where you sit, where you huddle in a ball crying, where you lay screaming and fighting for your life...it takes each and every memory and bathes it in grace, in mercy, in loving kindness and most of all...understanding.

He understands dear lost ones...He knows and He sits with you in your pain, in your sorrow and grief. He gets down into the dirty, vile places others shrink from. Its messy, isn't it...think shrapnel tearing up the inside of the body and then being able to SEE the damage...torn edges, blown vessels and tissue, bleeding and weak these women (and men) walk in a daze of confusion and lost hope.

Here we meet God...we meet a higher power, a supernatural source...bear with me my friends...I know not all believe, and not all believe the same...but, and its a large pause, what waits for us on the other side beckons to those who are going through the sh*t and the dirt, a daily thought for them and survivors too. The level of exhaustion reaches an all time high if we do not take the time to breathe, to meditate, to seek our God...I have seen it in patients; tired of fighting, of trying...so tired they seek death as a place of infinite rest.

We've spoken of this before...the level of spirituality reached during times of extreme duress...like, the battle seasoned veterans and soldiers who daily put their lives on the line, living with that knowledge weighs heavy. And when in the midst of battle the mind seeks, pushes for knowledge of something more...experiencing something they cannot explain, miracles with no reasoning.

Like, the battle scarred survivor...the battle riddled lost one, fighting to survive another day and somehow change the course of the war and the admiral-in-chief...to see a softening, loving actions that follow the promises spoken that never comes...

Here is where we meet God once again...choosing life over death, choosing honour, choosing love, forgiveness and grace....until one day we see our way free, we see it stretch out before us in a long winding path fraught with fear of a different kind. Freedom...

We no longer know who we are...we have been molded, shaped, beaten into someone not us...a shell of the woman (man) we were...so yes, freedom is frightening.

Doable my dear treasures...it's doable and the Promise Keeper, Waymaker, Miracle Worker, Light in The Darkness knows the way.

Stand tall today and each day forward warriors...stand tall and walk proud...you are worthy, deserving, and incredibly lovable. Go with God and see life with joy, with peace, with love.