Untitled- just read. :-)

This is Tannie on our walk this morning. I am sure most of you would look at this picture and think how cute she looks- she's too cool for this walk. Arm out, cruising along. But not me. The entire walk I stared at her foot. That foot. That food that is so close to dragging on the ground. That foot that can reach the wheel. That foot that could get severely injured from hanging out of the car. For the first 20 min I kept putting it back and telling her no. She would glance up at me, and kick it back out. I finally gave up. Truth is her foot can't reach the ground or the wheel but in my mind it could and her life would change in a second if her little foot got broken or fell off. Yep, that is where my mom brain goes.

I follow three different blogs. This week one person blogged about living in the messiness of her life and in the present. Another wrote about being terrified to hit publish on her first blog post but overcoming that fear. The other wrote about not knowing what is happening behind closed doors, not knowing what is going on in the lives of others.

All three seemed to have a common theme. Letting go of fear, living in the messiness of life and never assuming everyone around you is "ok".

Most of us live in constant fear. Fear for our world, fear for our own country, fear for our community, fear for our neighbors and fear for ourselves. I wonder where that constant fear comes from? We are trained to be scared. We are conditioned to not trust anyone around us and to assume the worst is going to happen in life. But what if, what if we could change that? Just one person at a time? What if we could believe that living in the messiness, taking the leap and opening our lives to those around us could help us to eliminate the fear in our own lives? Wouldn't that be liberating? Wouldn't that be freeing?

After my dad died, I embraced this idea of living in the present, trying to be brave, letting go of fear (as much as I can) and reminding myself that I am not alone, that those around me are hurting but if we are in this together we can provide love, support and grace to each other. It is amazing what a community can do for one another- what a group of women sitting in my living room on this past Sunday evening can do for my soul. When you choose to do life with other people it somehow allows you to get through the messiness, to let go of your fears and to embrace all those around you- to not shut people out and allow others to find comfort and peace with you.

My family has adopted a phrase "It is what it is". It means something different to all of us. The day we buried my dad, they headstone of the person behind his grave site was so massive they couldn't hide it. On the headstone it reads "it is what it is". We all laughed because of the irony of those words and will constantly look at each other and say "Good old, Chad McCurdy 'it is what it is'".

Life is what it is. There is little you can control. Things are going to happen. Kids are going to break their legs, people are going to get sick, loss is inevitable and pain is something you can't run away from.

But if you allow yourself to be present in the messiness, to embrace your fears and to lean on those around you it is possible to get to the other side of it. To come out of fear, pain and loss with the knowledge that you are not alone, you are loved and someone out there cares about you.

Blessings to all those hurting today, to all those living in pain and to all those in the world looking for someone to live this life with. You are not alone, you are worthy and you are loved.