Tuesday, March 22, 2011

The Weightless Embrace of a Day

We listed the weight we carried in pounds until the burden was clear.  Then each one of us picked up books, a hat, purse, backpack, a ring and hung them, placed them on his outstretched arms, in his palm.  We released our burdens to a single person in the room, and he buckled under the weight--patient and pressed to the edge of what he could hold.  And we were free.

"Have you ever unloaded on a person?"

Yes.

And tell me, what is the weight of an embrace?  When you hold the whole person in your arms.  How much does that weigh?

"Nothing.  You actually feel lighter."  What is the light burden?  The easy yoke?

It is the obvious, simplest, best answer:  Love.

Will you hold me?   Can I hold you?  Because all of life is a letting go, but this, this I must keep.

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