Glue

What holds us together?

This week I experienced my first earthquake - shake, rattle and roll! I was in a basement restaurant, Teaism, having a great conversation about life and love with Sheri Shepherd when the table started shaking, then the floor, then me. Silence. Nobody spoke - we all just looked at each other. Then the lights flickered and we all suddenly realized a basement wasn't the best place to be! As we left the restaurant people were pouring out of the surrounding buildings, cell phone reception was down, sirens careered through the streets and it was every man for himself.

Isn't it weird how you can be surrounded by thousands of people and be utterly alone? As I looked around my fellow Washingtonians I thought, would any of these people save me in an crisis? Would I save them before saving myself? In that moment I just wanted to be with Richard, the man who I know would do anything to save me.

It is amazing how the Lord puts us in families - however that 'family' looks. He puts us with people who love hanging out with us, who get our jokes, who shrug at our idiosyncrasies, who gobble our best and worst dishes, and who miss us when we're gone. This is what holds us together - it's the little dots of glue that shared memories and future dreams create. It's not about seeking out people who have loads of stuff, but those who have open hands and tender hearts; it's not about the physically beautiful but about those who adore us just as we are.

So, what's your sticky glue?

Return

I'm back. I haven't posted here since April and to be honest I'm back because of the encouragement from my gracious friends and family who told me they missed it! Not terribly sure why I stopped writing, maybe I'd a sub-conscious crisis of confidence or maybe I just kept forgetting! Anyhow .... I've returned.

It has been a month of returning. We took a two week trip to the UK. We frequented old haunts, ate familiar food, hugged lifelong friends, loved on our families. We even got to attend Morning Prayer and Communion at the church where we were married, on the day of our 11th Wedding Anniversary - amazing. It felt like the most natural thing in the world - there was no awkward moments, no prolonged silences, no getting lost. Stepping back into that world was easy, we belonged.

And yet ... we told everyone how amazing our new friends in DC are, how cute our wee house is in Old Town and how everything really is bigger in America! We extolled the virtues of great service and the kindness of the American people; we lamented the bureaucracy and the crazy driving and honking. I guess we've started to belong in America too.

The return flight to the US was different than the flight we took in November 2010 (the food and entertainment on Aer Lingus is way better than Continental!). We were returning to a familiar city, with our own place, and we knew where to buy our groceries. But more importantly, we were returning to a place where we'd been missed.

You know, there's little certainty in this world - economic, social and political unrest coupled with life being life, has seen off any certainty suitors. It's hard to feel grounded, to feel any sense of purpose. But to know another human being wants you to return - that'll keep you going all day long.

So, say a prayer for those you miss and who miss you - it'll help us all stay belonging to each other.