A Leveling Ground

Divorce, disillusionment, despair.

Crisis is the ultimate leveling ground and in many ways I crave it.
All else is stripped but necessity.
The superfluous dissipates, survival remains.

Raw honesty stands unapologetically.

I remember the clarity with which I lived, shortly after the death of my father.
I had found the truth- life is fleeting- the vast majority of it is not nearly as important as I make it out to be.

I spoke with a hurting friend tonight, in a place of despair, loneliness and questioning.

I spoke with a mother of two, in the process of divorce, striving to resurface after being dealt an unimaginable blow.

Both struggle to keep their heads above water. Both are entitled to honesty. Both are confronting the ice cold truth:
We surround ourselves with illusions of safety.

Crisis strips those illusions away.

I appreciate the hightened security in the airports these days, particularly the removal of shoes.
There we are, businessmen, grandmothers, lawyers and leaf-blowers slipping off our boots, sliding them through the scanners and waiting to be cleared.
Inches of height and hundreds of dollars are taken away.
For a fleeting moment we all stand with a bit of us laid bare.

Crisis allows no room for false appearances, eliminates the very desire for such efforts.
It invites connection.
Requires it.
I suppose life could be no more fully lived than meeting in these moments- finding connection when all that separates us no longer stands.
And in the truest moments, we realize we are not standing alone.
And indeed, that the One who is with us wants only one thing: to love us.