July 19, 2005


  • I’ve been told my site is cryptic (apart from the obvious last post). 


    But I’m not going to apologize… that is just the ways things are. 


    So here's an the update:


     


     


    14:10  ﻝﺎﺜﻣﺃ


    Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no-one else can share its joy.


     


    (Days…and weeks… of late have been, well, harder than I know how to admit.)


     


    My heart has been in smaller pieces than I can ever remember


     


    I have felt the pearls of my heart trampled by selves who did not understand, though they may have wanted to


     


    I’ve been enduring hard conversations and harder silences


     


    [things are not getting better with time]


     


    It becomes harder and harder to pick up the phone or click “compose new mail”


     


    My walls are getting whiter


     


    I have divorced myself


                     I left candles burning overnight and while I was away twice


                    Today is the first time in over a week that I have felt hungry


                    Dropped a class


                    Slept through another class


        I wake up each morning drenched with sweat as though the night has been an endless cycle of nightmares


                   


    It takes me at least an hour to get out of bed in the morning-no I’m not exaggerating


     


    I got angry


     


    I have felt more alone in the last month than I have since summers on campus-at least in equal weight


     


     


    ...and this is mercy


     


     


     Your mercy has to be just because Your truth has to be true  (Merton: Thoughts in Solitude, 60)


     


    Hold on to your particular pain.  That too can take you to G*d  (Rumi: The Soul of Rumi, 174)


     


     


    This is mercy because my heart can still break


     


    And because there is One alone who can ever understand it all


     


    Because those I love cannot fill everything


     


    Because love is unconditional… and does cost you something


     


    Because “silence teaches us to know reality by respecting it where words have defiled it” (Merton, 83)


     


    Because time itself is arbitrary, pain so temporary teaches little, and brokenness is beautiful and productive


     


    Because “as soon as you are really alone you are with G*d” (Merton, 117)


     


    Because I am not trapped here


     


    Because moving on and away from treasures –letting go—has never been my forte


     


    Because “there is no heart so whole as a broken heart” (Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav)


     


    Because I am not abandoned to myself


     


    Because today I felt hungry


     


    Because I am worth more than my academic pursuits


     


    Because the class I slept through was cancelled


     


    Because with each natural purging healing progresses


     


    Because I could finally pick up my pen


     


    Because today I was a little less sad than yesterday


     


    Because I get out of bed each morning


     


    Because I got angry


     


    Because one “becomes a solitary at the moment when, no matter what may be his external surroundings, he is suddenly aware of his own inalienable solitude and sees that he will never be anything but solitary.  From that moment, solitude is not potential—it is actual” (Merton, 77)


     


    Because this pain is beautiful to the One who loves me like the mess of my mangled feet after taking off my pointe shoes is beautiful to me


     


    Because there is much for which to be thankful


     


     


     


    There’s a shredding that’s really a healing, that makes you more alive (Rumi: This Battered Saucepan)


     


     


    The solution to the problem of life is life itself.  Life is not attained by reasoning and analysis, but first of all by living.  For until we have begun to live our prudence has no material to work on.  And until we have begun to fail we have no way of working out our success (Merton, 74)


     


     


     


     


     

Comments (20)

  • call me, anytime. i hope my conversations are not hard.

  • cryptic? makes me think of graves, not codes.
    hate waking up to faults that are mine alone.

  • Raine, first, thank you for responding to my last post.  Your words are like a balm of truth on my heart.  It is such a relief to finally put words to what I've been feeling for so long- it actually makes this hold on me weaker- and hearing my sister say that it's understandable and not unusual, is heartening.  I feel like I'm glad you could get some of your heartache out on the page too sweetheart.  What class did you drop?  How goes the moving?  How is your heart?  Need to go to the grocery store?  Wanna hang out this week?  I treasure the pearls of your heart Sis- and I'll help you find them down below.

  • You are beautiful.

    Maybe it doesn't matter much, but....I cried for you.

    --kristin

  • sweetness girl........  :)

  • erin, this is so... honest and real. and in that is found the beauty.
    i agree w/ u that u have found mercy in these hard times. there is reason to give thanks. even more than u realize.

    praise god ur heart still feels*

    i love u so much. i miss u at times bad.
    i am the one that got to make my teams end of the year video. it has been wonderful.
    i'd love to watch it with u sometime.

    ... i remember some of this pain. i felt some of it last year. i feel some of it now while here at tm. sometimes i so want to split. be done w/ here. but on to 4 and 5 years i now go. and that is my mercy for which i am more grateful than annoyed or hurt.

    love u
    ash

  • ashley shields. sorry i forgot i am on a computer and someone else was logged on.

  • i'm in the air force learning arabic at the defense language institute in monterey, ca. 

  • it's funny how you learn nothing from being content, but everything from the things that push to learn to be content.

    it's even funnier how you learn little from love itself, but everything from it's components and the sacrifices that make love love (both given and received.) 

    what funniest is how passion isn't passion until you're frustrated with the day-to-day and how change will never come until you're . . . angry.  with SOMEthing.

    your cracked heart is beautiful.  your hurting spirit sings. it sings a clear metallic a note that pierces the thick airs of your once worthless demise to reveal behind a cloud a you.  a new you.

    audience, please hold your applause until the end.  the production has only . . . 

  • many comments..
    allow me to add myslef to this list
    --some of those sentences..
    were not far from my heart either..
    we've "spoke" of this before..
    in brokenness JESUS SHINES...
    His face is glorified..
    His Character alive..
    because we realise who HE is..
    and who we are NOT!
    i love that..because HE is the GREAT I AM!
    people will fail us..our expectations...
    fall short..I am glad they do though..
    because once again HE is Glorified..
    so without a sermon..
    i leave you with Love..from above..
    that it should embrace you and hold you..
    because He will restore all things..and make them new..
    "Be still and know that I am God" Psalms 46:10
    Peace.

    p.s.
    thanks for your heart..
    and your friendship...
    you are a sweetheart...

  • You don't know me...but now you do. :)

    Your new xanga bud,

    Tammie  :)

  • your thoughts always lead me to introspection and prayer

    i love you

    (the link should work now)

  • Oh....I love you.

    Thank you.

  • erin...love you. when is it your coming this way?

  • The profile for insequenttoil's "Ron Luce told me to change the World" blogring has changed. Please check the new profile and decide if you would like to continue your membership in this blogring.

  • But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him,
    on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,
    Psalm 33:18
    just thought I'd write this..
    cause it was on my heart for you.

  • i had a dream the other night, that i was from Salem.
    i went on vacation and visited my grandparents and you came over.
    it was a good thought.
    if i had money for africa, i would be there.
    i will attempt another phone call.
    xoxo

  • reply coming your way.
    soooon.
    Love.

  • well just let me know when you know, im not busy really. ill talk to the roses, im sure they wont mind at all. :)

  • Hey Erin, just thought I'd say howdy! Hope you're ok!?

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