I stepped out of the car on a dusty evening to find myself standing beside the wall of flowers next to my teenage bedroom window. They had a softness and familiarity that took me back to the moment I first experienced being overwhelmed by flowers. The sense of comfort, belonging, and unknown dominated my senses now as it first did then.
It was energising to enjoy the flowers, if only for a few moments. Time seemed to stop. I found myself transported, even as Life reminded me of the lessons that have carried over and through the years. As I look forward to today, I find myself taking a fresh look.
Community gifts us with awareness of belonging. It is never one-way. In gifting acceptance, empathy, and respect to others, I find myself wrapped in the loving embrace of caring individuals, knowing that I am heard, and understanding that we can face life together. As different as our lives and situations might be, we share the longing and awareness of what it means to belong. I look around and echo one writer’s greeting; “Hello to Ampliatus, my good friend in the family of God.” (Romans 16.8)
Engagement takes our awareness into experience. The short yet deep distance between my head and my heart is bridged by my soul’s experience with relationships in the community. Life uses our interactions, especially the bonds that are formed between the need for help and supporting action. As the cycle deepens from perceived need to requests, from response to unconditional engagement, our experience informs and transforms our hearts and minds.
Expressions provide the colour and textures that make life greater than we imagine. The twinkle in the eyes takes a thank you to a different level of expression. The passion and intensity of an offer to help release the fear and uncertainty that comes with need. It is in letting go, being fully and completely who and what we are, that we discover what life is willing to give.
The flowers danced in the breeze, silently inviting everyone to join them.
