Radical Loving

I just saw this quote about losing someone on a friend's wall on Facebook.  She is grieving the passing of a good friend so if you could, please send up some prayers. 

When I read the quote, however, I thought of all those who have been in my life up until now and regardless of what's separating us right now, whether it be
death,
    religion/beliefs,
         geographical distance,
                  misunderstandings,
                     politics,
              time,
         money,
     life

whatever the case, I think of all those who have impacted my life through their friendship over the last 33 years. 

And how I so miss these people.  My friendship and love for them have not changed even if they think it has.  For the ones who are gone from this Earth way too soon, I look forward to reuniting someday. The thought of rejection, hurt, and people leaving makes it so easy to shut yourself off and to try to keep yourself in a bubble to keep from being hurt by others.  I heard a song in Nashville last week that contained the lyric, "I give up on love that I can't afford to lose" which has been on my mind in relation to this blog posting.  However, time marches on and it takes work to try to remain vulnerable and open to others instead of isolating yourself; to radically love even if another day goes by of no contact or perhaps feelings of anger or disappointment from the other person.  It is almost enough to make you want to compromise and give in to avoid "rocking the boat" but you also can't go back in time to change things.  All anyone can do is move forward and pray for acceptance, love, and understanding on all ends. 

Here is the quote I referred to at the start of the posting by Annie Lamott -

“You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.”

So even if friendships never resume or continue in a different direction, I suppose I can smile and be happy for the memories.  We're all companions on the journey; our time here is so fleeting as we journey to our final destination and I can't help but think if how beautiful a world it would be if more radical loving happened!