I’ve sat down to write many times in the past couple months, at loss for words because the truth is, I don’t know what the right thing to say is. I don’t know what to say to make people feel loved or seen or felt or heard. I don’t know how to navigate the heaviness of this world and the heaviness within myself. But maybe understanding the “how” or the “endgame” isn’t the point of showing up. We show up for love. We show up for faith.
We show up to heal.
And healing isn’t something new to my writing. Writing is my place to escape and feel free. And I think no matter what it is, whether it’s meant to be seen or not, we are all in need of an escape. A space to heal. To feel heard. To feel seen. To feel loved from the part of ourselves ready to show up to love and be loved.
Be loved in the capacity that you know how deserving you are of all the good in this world. Be loved in your space to heal. Be loved in your space to be quiet, to listen beyond the noise created within the stories that make up our lives.
We may not always experience the feeling of knowing the right thing to say. But this is the tangled mess of life, the decision we’re faced with and told to make right. And maybe my error is thinking that I could possibly know the right things to say right now, like words could somehow bring us out of this cycle of fear and hate.
Love is the only thing that could begin to touch on this delicate state we’re in. Love is the only thing that could possibly bring us out of this. Love in acceptance; forgiveness in the way that we are free from the moment before this one, embracing the moment that could bring a lighter future, bright with hope for the world that could be.
If you feel that darkness inside, that heaviness I know we all feel in varying ways weighing down on our shoulders, start by giving love. Love in showing up. Love in listening. Love in looking forward with grace for those that stumble along the way. And more than anything, love in looking within for what is missing in this world. Love is there, and now is the time to choose it.
