When It Rains, When It Pours.

There have been some hard things happening in our little community. I know that sounds vague, but a lot the the things have been happening to people we love dearly. They are not my stories to tell. It feels like when it rains, it POURS. And lately, there have been lots of raindrops. But in the midst of the hard, I am learning.

What I have learned is that feeling heartbreak along with those we love allows us to be compassionate, allows us to be present, and allows us to form deeper connections and stronger trust.

I am a person who gets in my head sometimes. Are you like that? When life gets stressful, or emotional, or even hard…I start to think. I start to try and figure it out. To try and understand the reasons “WHY”, to try and fix it, to try and make the heartbreak stop, the stress stop, the pain stop. Needless to say, I’ve been in my head a lot lately.

My sweet sweet husband came home from work last week and sat on our bed where I was working on e-mails. He was uncharacteristically quiet, even when I asked him what he was thinking about. Finally – he said it. The things he was thinking. The exact thing I had been feeling all week long.

It is so hard to watch the people you love in pain. 

We sat and agreed.

It is so hard.

But.

It is a gift.

It is a gift to love, and know, and be with people who you love SO much – that seeing them in pain makes your heart hurt.

Friends, that is what it means to bear each others burdens.

That is one of the gifts of relationship. Knowing that our pain, knowing that the hard things we are going through – they don’t just matter to us. They matter to the people who love us like their own family. We don’t have to feel alone, because we know that our pain is real and that other people see it, and are there with us in the midst of it.

We know that when it feels like life is raining  POURING in our own lives, that the people who love us are going to draw near, even if that means they are going to get a little wet.

It is a gift to be trusted with someone else’s brokenness and be able to hug them, pray for them, and to listen. To bring meals, or to bring coffee, or send flowers, or meet for late night appetizers. To laugh with them, to cry with them, to grieve with them, and of course – to celebrate with them.

If nothing else, 2017 has taught me once again that I don’t want just easy-peasy relationships. Relationships that are never full of hard conversations, brokenness, and vulnerability. I don’t want that. I don’t want to have friendships that never make me feel sadness.

I want friendships that are full of real emotions, real conversations, real life things.

I want to be there on the best days to celebrate.

I want to be there on the hardest days, to comfort.

When the people I love are in pain, I want to be close enough to notice. And present enough to give big hugs, and bowls full of cold ice cream. 

Even when it rains.

Even when it pours,