I read a great post last night from TWLOHA. Well..two great posts. They both got me thinking a little/a lot about life and how we choose to live it. Before we begin:

“We are only asked to love, to offer hope to the many hopeless. We don’t get to choose all the endings, but we are asked to play the rescuers. We won’t solve all mysteries and our hearts will certainly break in such a vulnerable life, but it is the best way. We were made to be lovers bold in broken places, pouring ourselves out again and again until we’re called home.”

There is beauty in this life and it’s not just the obvious sunshine and flowers. I find beauty in the dark clouds and music in the thunder as well. I think we are meant to. We can all appreciate beautiful day, and we can all appreciate life when it is good. Have we learned to appreciate life when it sings a darker tune as well? I used to believe to my very core that the best way to deal with pain and sorrow is to suppress it, bury it, and deny it. I missed out on so much growth during that time. I think we find out who we are in the valleys of our lives and we allow others to find out who we are as well. Life would be so much more if we could learn to embrace our weaknesses and use them to transform us, rather than sweeping them under the rug only to be rediscovered again and again. Why are we so intent upon hiding our struggles? Do we really have so much pride that we think we are above it? There’s no avoiding the fact that everyone holds some darkness in their hearts and this is true of each of us. I think it’s time we shine some light on it.

Because when we shed some light on it, we can begin to know each other deeper and we can begin to help each other. How can we care for someone if we don’t know them? And how can we be cared for if we aren’t known? I want this life to be real. Not a stage that we all use to perform on. We are not actors. We are real, with real joy and real sadness, and we owe it to ourselves and to each other to live like so.

It is my prayer that I always care for people. Those that I am close to and the woman at the gas station. Those that are easy to love and those that seem unloveable. It is my prayer that I live in such a way that allows other people to care for me and in a way that I can be loved for all that I am and not who I try to be. It is my prayer that you take a second look at the people you pass today and dare to look past the smile they may be faking. Take a moment to show someone that you care for them and invite them to be real with you.  I also challenge you to be real with others today. When your best friend asks you how you’re doing, tell the truth. If you’re great, praise be to God. If you’re not, praise still be to God, but let them know. If they’re really your best friend, they want to know, because they care for you. When we start to live like this, I think we can learn to find beauty in every facet of life, and just maybe the clouds won’t look so ugly anymore.

From someone who could express it better than I can:

” if you want to learn to fight for the lives and health of the people around you – my guess is that it will happen in the context of real relationships and honest conversations. It will happen at lunch and over coffee, in conversations long-overdue that begin with “How are you?”  It will happen as we allow ourselves to be truly known and truly loved and as we pursue the kinds of friendships where those things can be reciprocated. It will happen when we’re real with the people around us, when we invite people into our questions, our struggles, our fears, our dreams. It will happen when we get the help we need and invite others to do the same.”

I hope you have a blessed day. I hope you have a real day.

with all the love I can give,

Jenna