TRUTH

Today, as often happens, a piece I needed to read popped up on my screen. Anne Lamott’s “12 Truths I Learned from Life and Writing” came across at just the right moment. I’ll be honest, tears have been flowing pretty freely lately, a combination of holidays and just life in general. That and my middle-age I-don’t-give-a-crap-if-I-want-to-cry-then-I’m-just-gonna-cry-damn-it attitude have made leaky eyes the norm for me 

If you haven’t already read Anne’s piece, I highly recommend you do so now. Even before reading my own gibberish. She has great points, but the one that knocked me out was her last point on death and the reference to Ram Dass’, “When all is said and done, we’re really just walking each other home.” So simple. I’m not religious. I don’t go to church. Honestly, I think much of what I learned growing up is likely crap. But I do believe that in the end, it all comes together and we all come together. And that believe sustains me. Even as I struggle. Even as I find myself lost and rudderless, that simple belief holds me together and moves me forward.

“…walking each other home.” Wow. There are those we walk with often, those who happen by only once, and those who sporadically fill our days. And then there are those ‘assigned’ to us as family, not necessarily or always with us, but somehow attached, tethered to who we are, who we were and who we will become.  Though not always welcome, these are the souls who often walk with us the longest, teach us the most, and require the most forgiveness. Family, Anne’s other amazing truth and number eight on her list, and forgiveness. Start with yourself and move on from there, as it’s our own mistakes that are the hardest to move beyond.