blog
Separation
Tuesday 7th August 2018 @ 4:42 pm
Separation anxiety is a real thing. Children and parents. Parents and children. Changing home / city / work / country. Deep loss. [Seemingly] Trivial loss. An attempt at lifestyle improvement, or a coarse rip in the fabric of everything known to be true stable and purposeful.
Being separated from the things, which to this point, have made us who we are, requires the ability to stop, take a breath, and look around.
Looking over the shoulder invites us to see (and learn) where we have come from. Looking all around us invites us to really see where we are. And if necessary, looking straight ahead invites us to travel with the security of knowing we travel with eyes and heart open, fully aware, fully present.
If you need to slow down or stop and take a breath, maybe you can appreciate these words written from prison in Nazi Germany …
Nothing can fill the gap
when we are away from those we love,
and it would be wrong to try to find anything.
We must simply hold out and win through;
leaving the gap unfilled preserves the bond
between us.
It is nonsense to say “God fills the gap”.
He does not fill it, but keeps it empty
so that our communion with one another may be
kept alive – even at the cost of pain.
The dearer and richer our memories,
the more difficult the separation.
But gratitude converts the pangs of memory into
a tranquil joy.
(Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
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