Relief? Oh yeah, baby.

*Soundtrack Sunday is best enjoyed listening to the music while you read the post*

Out my window the colors flash by in a canvas of contrast.  Reds, oranges, and yellows burst out of the fields of green, brightening the blue of the sky.  The farther I go, the more beautiful my surroundings, the calmer my heart gets.  An escape. 

Faces, smiles, surround me.  Smiles without names, women without identities.  Strangers. And yet they smile on. 

I hang around the outskirts.  I listen, I watch.  I wait for the courage to jump. It doesn't come. 

 

Then she approaches, the pretty one with the four adorable daughters.  I know a bit of her story, but not enough yet to really know her.  And yet, still, she came.  And for me, that was the moment when I looked around and saw.  

Not strangers.  Sisters. 

The night wears on.  The cold seeps in.  No fire without to keep us warm.  

But the warmth, it comes from within.  

The colors I see are more beautiful than the trees.  Stories emerge.  A beautiful tapestry of experiences, love, service, pain.  

For a few hours, I am them, and they are me.  No matter how little I really know, I do know them.  Daughters of God.  

And that is the true beauty in this world.  Each so different.  And each so alike.  Women.  Handmaidens of the Lord.  It is our hands He uses to lift those who need lifted.  It is our words that bring the comfort He wants us to feel.  It is our song that will raise the generations to come.  

And I know that with each other......

we can do anything.  

I hope I can have the courage to stop trying to do it alone.