A blessing for living between

a blessing for living between.
Between miracles.
Between answers.
Between formulas.

Blessed are you who live here,
this space between
simple categories and easy answers.

You who wonder why this is your life,
why you got this diagnosis,
or why you still struggle with infertility,
or why you haven’t found your birth parents,
or why you can’t kick the addiction
or why your kids haven’t come home.

Blessed are you who
build a home on uneasy ground,
who, despite your trying,
your asking, you’re searching,
haven’t found the satisfying
feeling of discovery.

And blessed are you who never will.
This is not an easy place to live.
Outside of certainty,
outside of knowing,
outside of the truth.

But blessed are you
who realize that love and beauty
and courage and meaning live here too.
Amid the unease and the frustration
and the sleepless nights.
In the way love and courage
show up through people,
through presence, through laughter.

May you be surprised by
your capacity for ambiguity,
for the way it makes you
a great listener and a good friend,
for you are someone who knows
how to feel your way around
in the dark and squint for the stars.

I wish it were easier, dear one.
I wish I could hand you
the answers you seek.

But for now,
may you find comfort
in the fact that you are not alone.
We are all learning to live
in the uncertainty in the unknowing.
So blessed are we who live here together.

~ Kate Bowler, November 19, 2023 ~

A dear friend, well acquainted with grief, having lost her step-daughter to cancer a few years back, introduced me to Kate Bowler, herself close friends with cancer. I’ve listened to a couple of Kate’s “in your face with honesty” podcasts, and an interview on On Being. This recently posted poem speaks to me of her no holds barred, compassionate experience of living in the liminal – rife with challenge, rich with gifts.

I’m not sure why I felt moved to share this poem today, after many months’ pause in my Friday photo and poem posts. Maybe because right now – again – so many near and far are living “outside of certainty, outside of knowing, outside of the truth.” That our world, human and the more than, is living in the indefinite pauses between miracles, answers, and formulas. That we might each find comfort in knowing we aren’t alone, and in the blessing we all live here together, near and far.

Much love and kindest regards, dear friends.