Suddenly

You know, some things we just can’t understand until … we do. Then suddenly, it all begins to make sense. The catch in our throat. The quivering chin. The internal kicking and screaming. The full-blown rages.

Maybe all we thought we had to do to avoid what we thought would be unbearable can be felt after all (and survived) because there are people who will bear the pain and sorrow with us. Maybe we can release the emotions we’ve never allowed to surface – and share the truth we boxed up long ago and stored away as far from sight as possible.

Sometimes that works … for a while, at least. Out of sight, out of mind. But not forever.

Then suddenly, a time comes when we realize it’s time. Mainly because our unsayable truths refuse to remain silent any longer. They begin to speak louder than words in the behaviors and tendencies we can no longer explain away with old excuses. And suddenly, we know it’s time to face what we’ve pretended away, or performed our way out of, for so long that the burden truly has become too heavy for us and our chins quiver under the weight of it.

And when that time comes, an amazing thing happens. We find that there are others who love and accept us, and that we no longer have to bear the pain alone. And slowly but surely, we begin to risk feeling our way back home to our hearts where a Love we never knew was possible waits with open arms.

The featured image is Vincent Van Gogh’s Women Miners Carrying Coal harvested from http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/expressionism/images/VincentVanGogh-Women-Miners-Carrying-Coal-1881-82.jpg.