feeling loved to endure all things
Flowers and books are among my favourite things. Both have been a comfort over the last few weeks. Beautiful flowers brightening up the house, precious reminder of the love with which they’ve been sent. Finding the right book at the right time and being open to the wisdom and encouragement it offers.
We suffered an unbearable sadness this month, one I thought we’d never recover from. I’m relieved I was wrong; our love for each other makes it bearable and we are recovering, strengthened by the outpouring of love from family and friends.
A love that understood our need to be on our own. A love that helps us remain connected, cherished and hopeful in spite of everything.
I’ve been reading one of George’s books, Sacred Journey by Mike Riddell, this week. He’s vaguely waved it in my direction before but I guess it wasn’t the right book at the right time then. Mike’s reflections on the nature of love and relationships reminded me of the commitment George and I continue to make to one another each day of our married life. Like many people we chose 1 Corinthians 13 as a reading at our wedding — you know the one ‘Love is patient, love is kind…’.
But do you know how the rest of it goes?
”Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things’.
Never has this felt more true for George and I. We never realised until now though how true it is of the people we’re not married to as well. Of the loved ones who believe and hope on our behalf until we can endure it again for ourselves.
Footnote: when I wrote this post in 2011 I couldn’t bring myself to say “our baby died”. It was too raw, too soon and too painful for any thoughts beyond the child we’d never know. It took 6 years and the healing that was our beautiful boys to write about our experience of miscarriage following fertility treatment more fully. Our story of hope and believing that miracles do happen is captured in “writing when you’re lost for words — healing after miscarriage”. For National Infertility Awareness Week (NIAW) 2018 I finally shared the whole story of Our infertility journey through PCOS to parenthood. I hope you find some encouragement here if you find yourself on a similar path.
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Originally published at nipitinthebud.wordpress.com on February 14, 2011.
