This post is inspired by Five Minute Friday: Kate Motaung provides a one-word prompt, and you write for five minutes flat–no extreme editing, no overthinking. I am a slow writer and hate to leave thoughts unfinished, so I note the five-minute mark with an asterisk and then plow ahead ’till the work is done.
Also, the FMF blog community is helping build a South African community center! It’s wonderful. If you’re so inclined, you can learn more and donate here.
Today’s word is REACH.
A small reach: It was a reach to rekindle this blog. A reach, because I’m used to writing for an institution or publication, not myself. A reach, because I extend a piece of myself, word by word, not knowing who will receive it, or how: with silence? with gratitude? with indifference? with scorn? A reach, because blogging has nudged me to be a more proactive commenter, with each comment and reply a gentle grasp for connection.
A bigger reach: It was a reach to write, to write with rawness, of the suffering of fellow humans.* A reach, because who am I to have an opinion on life in a world apart, on suffering I will never know? A reach, because with each word I say, This I feel. And feelings can be rejected. Or wonderfully, reciprocated and appreciated.
These words from a radio broadcast this week drifted into my ear and stayed blazoned in my mind:
“… shame is really easily understood as the fear of disconnection: Is there something about me that, if other people know it or see it, that I won’t be worthy of connection? … The thing that underpinned this was excruciating vulnerability, this idea of, in order for connection to happen, we have to allow ourselves to be seen, really seen.”
It is a reach to feel fiercely: to love, to fear, to hope, to believe, whole-heartedly. It is a reach–perhaps the boldest reach of all–to then share our whole heart: to declare, not unlike a trusting child to a parent, This I feel. Here is my heart and what it is made of. Do with it what you will.
To reach is the most joyful and painful requirement of love, of marriage, of parenting, of friendship, of writing, of God. When we reach and offer our whole heart, we tend to treat others’ hearts with compassion. To reach is to be human; even more, it is to be human toward our fellow humans.
spifftacular. 
thank you for this post… not because of this post so much (although I enjoyed it), but because of your link to your post about iraq. thank you for reaching to express those thoughts… i’d also thought of that quote from the end of the book thief and thought how appropriate it was… to so many situations in our world today. praying that many join you and translate horror and haunting into tangible action – even if it helps only one.
blessings ~ thankful to be your 5mf neighbor this week.
Thanks for stopping by, Richelle! I have been turning to that “Book Thief” quote often, I love it so much. And I like the way you put it–translate horror and haunting into action. I do hope that!