Heavy-hearted

The ugliness of the world continually reveals itself. The headlines of the hour, the day, the minute intrude into our lives on a routine and regular basis. The headlines thrive on the depravity of the world, in a seemingly endless supply of try to top this level of horror.

Humans are capable of the most egregious of actions. All of us cross lines of decency to various degrees. There are none among us that are without fault. We all have our flaws, and our failure whether we admit to them or not.

My heart aches tonight. There are many reasons ranging from world wide terrorism, to dysfunctional families. I cannot throne stones from this glass house of mine without indicting myself - trust me I'm no saint. There's a part of me that say's "we're only human" in the sense of foreboding and fear. Yet in the next I say "we ARE human" and have incredibly capacity to overcome.

I took just a few minutes to jot down the following. I had one song on my mind while thinking about this, and as often happens, one thing (song) leads to another. So here are the flow of words that came to me:

We’re only human,

Sadly so many times,

Brokenness begets brokenness

Families torn

Friends worn

Yet there is strength,

Ashen remains,

The Phoenix arises

Human capacity,

Unbounded

Mountain tops

Valley

Desert

Oasis

We trod them all

Ups and downs

We’re only human

Happily so many times,

Love begets love

Families shorn

Friends steadfast

(I hope you'll take the time to play the song - click on the titles)

You may have guessed that Christina Perri's "Human" was playing. To me it speaks of strength despite extraordinary burdens.  Her song "Distance" talks to the fear of revealing herself to another - wanting to pretend there isn't love, to hide and keep a distance. Finally her song "Arms" came up,  doubts are overcome with the strongest power there is - Love.  

While heavy-hearted, I have an optimistic view. The crap of the world and the strife we cause each other and/or ourselves will not conquer us. We will grieve the unbearable burdens of this life. We will be challenge till we fall. Yet we can lift each other up. We can support each other. We can cry with each other and celebrate with each other. Love will prevail.

Blessings,

Brian