This one isn't funny.....

My cousin told me that in order to have a good blog you need to post at least every other day. But I haven't written in a while because I haven't been inspired by anything especially hilarious lately. Epic Fail.

New Tactic: Write whatever the heck I want without worrying about whether or not I'm going to wow my audience with another "funny" blog. I'm not sure why I put 'funny' in quotations. They actually have been funny. I feel like Joey on friends when he doesn't know how to use air quotes correctly.

So today I'm going to talk to you about something not particularly funny. But I feel like I've had a bit of an epiphany lately and I thought I'd share it here.

Apparently people in this world die. Not a new epiphany, I know, but stick with me here. I know that people die. People die every day. Most of us have probably experienced some sort of loss in our lives at some point, some of us more often than others. I, however, have not experienced a whole lot of it in my life. And, with that being said, I don't think I have ever quite known how to love people well when they experience a loss. Especially people I am not close with.

But apparently, God is trying to teach me a little lesson on how to step into people's lives and grief because during this past week I have heard more about suffering and loss than I have in the past year. It started when one of my regulars at my coffee shop came in to the shop to tell us that her mother had passed away. This regular is wonderful. Around my mother's age but I wouldn't say we're close necessarily. However, when she arrived at our shop crying I felt compelled to sit with her. To hug her. To tell her we are here for her in whatever way she needs. And as I sat there next to her I was silently shocked at the way I handled the whole thing. I could have stayed on the other side of the counter and told her how sorry I was, but something in me told me to enter into that grief with her. I realized nothing I could do nor say could take away the pain, but it didn't matter. Pain is meant to be shared and I think the older I get, the more I realize that emotions are not something to run away from, but something to be embraced, even when they're not my own.

Today I had two more encounters. A friend I've known for 2 and a half years opened up about a tragedy in her own family from long ago and a random man walked in to get a cup of coffee after coming home from his father's funeral. With both of these experiences I was surprised at how present I was and how I wasn't afraid to enter into the experience with them. And in turn was able to open up about some of my own grief that I haven't really dealt with over the years. I was surprised to find myself tearing up after talking about it. Usually I think I just push it all down deep inside and refuse to actually deal with any of it. I talk about things that have affected me, but I talk about them nonchalantly; as if they don't actually affect me at all.

I met a man named Sean Sheridan last night. He wrote a book called Testimony Africa. You should look into it. But I'm not here to talk about the book (I haven't actually read it, but I can't wait to read it soon), I'm here to talk about something he said that I find rather profound. He said that the one thing to which we can all relate is suffering. We have all suffered in some way, whether it was loss or tragedy, whether we live here or in Africa or anywhere else for that matter, we have experienced it and it binds us together; gives us something over which to relate. And I think I have found that recently. There is no use running away from pain or from loss or even from emotions. They will find us all eventually. If we embrace them, we can embrace each other. And how beautiful is that?

I think for a while I had been a little afraid that not having any children of my own would negatively affect my ability to support a woman in labor. But I'm realizing more and more that is not the truth. I have been in pain. I have experienced suffering. I have experienced joy and celebration. It doesn't matter if I have experienced labor and birth before. I have experiences I can relate with a mother on and as long as I am willing to enter into that experience with her, it will be powerful and beautiful and everything in between.

So there you go. Food for thought. Speaking of food, I made myself some delicious nachos today. Want to know one of my favorite jokes? "What kind of cheese is not yours?" "NACHO cheese!" HA! Ha Ha HA HA Ha Ha Ha...... It never gets old! I found it on a laffy taffy one time. Did that effectively liven the mood? Oh good.