We vacillate between extremes most days, don’t we?
I have been dancing like a pendulum swinging in relationships with people. Moving in, moving out- trying to find my place and purpose. I can be all or nothing.
Sacrificing, people pleasing, powerless
or
holding back, guarded, closed–
Neither is the right place to be, extremes are never good.
We can not attend to relationships, broken people, and our own hearts when we vacillate in the extremes.
We open ourselves up, get burned, and so we swing all the way to the other side in an effort to bind the wound and protect ourselves – bandaging and insulating.
Can you see it?
The pendulum back and forth – swinging drastically to the right, severely to the left,
violent in its clashing back and forth, back and forth, back and forth!
We can not be so dramatic with each others’ hearts.
Hearts need consistency,
hearts need something to depend on,
hearts needs safety,
hearts needs patience
and endurance
and kindness
and generosity
and a real genuine desire to be known.
We need each other to be careful with the hearts we are privileged to hold.
And so the pendulum slows…to a rhythmic peace that holds a heart with care.
Slow and steady
Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth…
Rhythmic in its effort to find a new place, a new peace, a new posture for my own heart, learning to care for the hearts of others.
