How is it that something intangible can bind us, trap us, keep us prisoner?

It has no form, and yet it overpowers us, it entangles us, and seeps into our lives.

We look back sometimes, completely powerless to where it has taken us, what damage it has done.

And there seems like no way out from the power and destruction of the thing with no form.

And no one knows that it’s there, except us.

It grips at the lives of our people.

Some are wounded in a deep, deep place that they don’t even know about yet. It is utter fear to even put words to it.

And uncapping this terror would be like containing a tidal wave.

There is just no way to face it without it becoming all we can see.

How can we possibly make it through?

The moment our heart can see our hand in someone else’s pain, we are burdened with the truth that there is no turning back.

We cannot change what’s been done.

We cannot undo it.

We wish beyond anything in this life to undo it, but there is no stopping time.

The sticky thing about the thing with no form is that it’s everywhere.

I often wonder why… why are we faced with this, even if it’s of our own making? Why do we cause pain and why do others do the same?

What is the reason?

We wish we could have done it differently, better, righter.

We wish for no pain.

But isn’t pain actually the truer thing in our life, isn’t it what makes us sometimes feel more alive? Pain can cause us to turn away from life, but in the end, it mostly causes us to turn and face life head on.

There is a mystery to the thing with no form.

And if we’ll allow ourselves to truly face it, to truly see it for what it is, and to truly be broken by it, then we will find a ribbon.

We will find the beauty in the threads that flow throughout our lives.

Even though all we can offer is our brokenness, we will see a strong, beautiful ribbon flowing from beginning to end.

And as we can see this ribbon in our own lives, light in the midst of darkness, may graceful open-handedness be the strong thread we offer to everyone in this world.

It is our strength and our hope.

xo,

Nicole