I received waves of gladness from friends who saw me online since last week.
Ben tornata!
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| Icon of Friendship |
Apart from the endless celebrations we had last March,
my sister's visit...
my niece's graduation...
convention...
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| The priest tells of the Icon of Friendship |
...the most memorable, perhaps was the half day retreat
my mom and I had at the De Meester's...
I haven't prepared myself much during Lent and the few hours I spent listening and reflecting with the priest were all I had left.
Come Good Friday, I slept less and awoke early for self-examination before confession. My confessor spoke the same words that struck me a week before during the retreat...
What gets most affected when 'something' occurs?
And I spoke spontaneously of 'relationships.'
As I told friends earlier, I was not hiding but recreating myself (Recreating the Soul). I have lost patients in the ward but never a friend, through a choice made disparately.
I, admittedly, distanced myself from 'online' friends for a year.
'When we lose a loved one,' wrote Sulekha Rawat, 'we go quietly mad...'
I believe that.
Two years of offering to God's Divine Mercy and I slowly gave myself away to acceptance and forgiveness...
The priest said, "Don't get stuck in the mud..."
It has made me taste Psalm 40, 2 in a more meaningful way...
And by this, I mean, I repeat it to myself more often,
'He (the Lord) lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
He set my feet on a rock
and gave me a FIRM place to stand.'
~ Ps. 40, 2 NIV ~
And so, I am breathing fresh air again...
opening myself up to Life...
because you,
my friend,
my soul sister,
are finally FREE!