After the brain dump yesterday I find myself somewhat sated intellectually. On the eve of another anniversary I find much solace in quotes from yesteryear:

both from 1980:


and

Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger,
you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted;
but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands,
and someone else will dress you
and lead you where you do not want to go." John 21:18

I can look back over the past 26 years and realise that I am the product of so many influences both personal and societal, and that I have allowed the spirit of the living God to touch me. I have failed but I have also succeeded, I have been true to the greater ideals, yet fallen short in the minute details at times. I can celebrate so much and give thanks for so much. It is enough.

Shock and sorrow have been a bitter pill but I do know about grief! Hopefully I am becoming a more compassionate person, more understanding, more forgiving and loving. Empathy and self denial have still some way to go, but the grief hole has made me who I am now and I am less shallow and less oblivious to the pain of others.

I have a long way to go to understand fully how one enters into the shared suffering of Christ, but I dimly see the light.