I drove into the parking lot as the sun was beginning to set. I love the dusty yellow and oranges that come with an Emirati sunset. The walls revealed a different perspective, inviting me to see everything through the pieces represented. Initially, I was caught by surprise. The buildings changed as I considered the stories and emotions represented by the people who called this home. The layering of the streets on the way to the corniche and sunset horizon flattened out to become an integrated puzzle. When I considered the pieces, my view of the whole changed. Each piece carried additional insight, colour, and texture to the story canvas.
Who I am is richer when one includes the pieces of my life. It is too easy to skip to the whole. When one includes the experiences, scars, and emotional telltales, an individual begins to emerge. In the awareness of my two-dimensional sunsets taking on three or more dimensions, I find myself seeing and understanding others differently. In seeing the foundations for hope, pain, uncertainty, and strength, I see an invitation to unconditionally accept each as s/he is. The invitation seems to be about others, even as I realise that it is primarily about my willingness to see and accept myself for who I am.
My story is best heard within a larger story. It is not as if hearing my story alone is wrong, it is simply incomplete. When it is understood with the wonderful combination of details and nuances shared with others along the way, the barriers to my heart and soul melt into transparency. Old words take on new meaning. “The body we’re talking about is Christ’s body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn’t amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body,” (Romans 12.5)
The sunset mosaic and all that it brings fills me with hope for today.
