Souls Ajar

cel·e·brate (v.)

to mark a special occasion or day; to praise something publicly

I'm a big believer in the awesomeness of life.  Fragile but fierce, life deserves our applause.  Okay, it deserves more than that - it merits world-wide standing ovations.  And so I can't help but reply to Facebook statuses of soldiers returning to their families...safe, sound, home.  I can't help but share good news for Kate McRae (latest MRI update here.)  I can't help but weep over a boy in the Amazon named Jonathan, neglected by family and pursued by Compassion.  And I can't help but cheer when I read of hundreds of India's daughters changing their names from the one of their parents gave them - "Unwanted."

The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.

Emily Dickinson

Life is wild and precious...fighting the waves of war and cancer and hunger and cruelty that break hard against its shores.  Shouldn't we pause to give life the credit it's due?  And then C to the E to the L to the E to the B to the R to the ATE?

Each year we circle the miracle of life on our calendars with birthdays.  'Cuz when so many things could have gone horribly wrong in a womb, we were born.  Simple days that mark time...and scream of life.  Another year - more scars, more stories, more laugh lines, more...

We've celebrated a whole lotta "more" over the last few weeks.  Princess and costume parties, a brunch to honor my mom's 6-0.  A bonfire with my siblings.  Wii tourneys and the baring of hearts with out-of-town friends - blessing the "more" together...

Sunday, we celebrated my husband.  I'm grateful for Jon, for his life, for what it means to my life. There's a line from the movie Eat, Pray, Love where Felipe says to the main character, "You don't need a man, Liz.  You need a champion."  Jon is mine.  And I'm so thankful for more life with him.

I suppose it's easier to shut a soul up; to close a soul down.  To believe life doesn't begin at conception after all and even if it did, it isn't all that special to be here anyway.  Easier to walk away from a friendship or a marriage when hearts are shattered.  Easier to check-out of nurturing a child when connection is a struggle.  Easier to ignore the poor or the cast-off.  Easier to view people as commodity or resource rather than sacred, holy, precious, life...crafted and loved, fashioned by a Creator-God for purpose and delight.

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God's handwriting - a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Souls ajar.  Fighting.  Celebrating.  Imagine the life that would rise up from that place...

Happy Birthday Zai, Anya, Jael, Mom, Judah, Jon.  And welcome to another beautiful year of more.