True Revival: The Long-Lasting Kind {And A Call to Concrete Words}

So last year I wrote this, and I've been thinking hard on it, how I've failed at lent this year, how it's been non-existent for me, how a diagnosis back in the fall, a diagnosis no one wants to receive, has taken over my life like some dark cloud, a dark, foreboding heavy cloak that weighs me down, seeming like a foreshadowing of what is to come. This illness, it seems to have sapped all the strength right out of me.

It lays on us thick, making the dredging through everyday feel like it's impossible to force laughter to gurgle up and out. I sit in the cold stillness, sweater wrapped round my body, lambswool blanket my comforting security, and I watch them play, watch them laugh, and some days when they seem tired and docile, I worry about them.

Sometimes it seems like my long-legged girl has forgotten how to smile, and I wonder if she mirrors me.

My tall Lorna has such a strong heart, and there has been a few mornings she has woke her Mama up and brought hot tea. When she does these things for me, I see such a nurturing mother in her, already at almost twelve, and I feel confident and sure for all the future children tucked away quiet in her womb.

Their schooling seems to fall through my hands like too many grains of sand, and I feel the weight of what I cannot carry in this frail body I despise. I tell myself tomorrow will be different, and tomorrow comes and I struggle and they struggle sometimes too and the days blur, and every homeschooling mama knows this hardship.

It's been three and a half years now, and this illness in my body feels like a mountain I can find no way around, no way over, no way through.

The doctor tells me we will send Lorna to Jackson University to a neurologist for the sudden passing out and seizures that's happened twice, and I'm glad to have some answers soon, at the same time overwhelmed at all the work that lays before me with long trips to the doctor.

I talk to Husband about possibly putting them back in public school, because I am not handling the weight well, and my heart is in my throat as I say the words. We talk about it, in low tones, and it seems impossible, because one daughter learns differently and needs to be at home, and all the reasons that we decided to homeschool in the first place are what make this decision so hard. Homeschooling is a whole other, strange, wonderful, miraculous animal, and if you believe in it's principles, then it's painstaking to think of your child thrown back into the system, labeled "behind", simply because they learn differently.

Once in a while at night, I drink more than one glass of wine, and I feel heavy, relaxed, and some crazy days it's the only thing that calms the raging storm inside. Husband lays back on the couch and watches a movie with me, red deliciousness in hand, kids all finally quiet and sleepy for the day, until we hear squeals and screaming and fighting, and we yell "Don't make me come in there!"

I kiss heads, feel the softness of my lips against their cool, sweet cheeks, and tell them goodnight, feeling the tug to do more, wanting to read with them, but knowing my body can't handle anymore that day.

Ivy looks at me with questioning eyes as I lean on the counter, "You know Mama, you could just go lay down and take a nap..."

But my heart aches, and I stare at her thinking, and I blink it back, Oh, child, I don't want you to worry about me. 

The words are stuck inside, a silent scream that I can't get out: "If only God had not given me this bitter cup to drink!"

My friend tells me that maybe I need to take some time off, some time away from everything, if that's what it takes to get better, whatever I need to do for myself and for my family.

I swallow down the bitter taste of truth coming from my friend. It's a painful lump lodged there in my throat. I shake my head and shake it off. Leave them? I couldn't do that. Sometimes a mother doesn't know how to do what's best for her, because all the synapses of her soul only know how to fire off and execute what's best for her children.

I call Husband and tell him I'm not feeling well, and to bring me some Ben & Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk, my favorite, or Chocolate Fudge Brownie. He brings the brownie kind. Seriously, Ben & Jerry's when I'm supposed to be on a detox. And Lent? I honestly have hardly thought about it. I feel like a failure as I swallow down the cold, chocolaty goodness. But the chocolate sludge feels so good going down and makes me forget for a moment the trudging.

And so what more can I tell you, now that I've spilled my guts, let you see my soul?

We find the grace in the little triumphs and we find joy in sun-warmed afternoons. I try to remember how to laugh. I try to be brave.

I try to keep smiling when I see my girls looking at me, so intuitively, their eyes questioning, watching me.

We washed dishes today, my eleven-year old and I, and we sang loud to Journey (well, I did--she just stared at me like I was nuts), and we danced and I tickled her with soapy hands until she fell on the ground in a laughing heap.

The girls come to me now, all red-cheeked clamor, "Mama!! Lilly just said 'Let me go'! I was holding her upside down and she said it! She said it, Mama! A whole sentence!" And it's better than a foot-stomping, hand-clapping, revival church service.

We cheer for her, clap our hands, and we have a little church right here in our own hearts, in our own home, for these words were a long time coming from my little Lilly. It's a broken hallelujah reverberating in my heart.

And it feels a little like real Victory, and the bitter cup, a way to learn what truest healing is.

It feels a little like true Revival, the long-lasting kind, the kind that lasts longer than a three hour church service in the altar, it's the kind that gives children joy even while watching their Mama struggle with illness, the kind that makes Mamas stand up with the strength to continue in the face of adversity.

My friend wrote this at her place, and she asked "Where are the messy, gritty, stories of the still-lost?" I wrote some messy stories, stories that were very hard to publish, here, and here, and here, stories that show a grateful-for-grace-me.

And I will keep writing them, even though my temptation is to write helpful things, to give you 10 steps to a better you--I'm not going to do that. I just want to share my stories, and help you find yourself in them. I want to help you and I, and all of us find ourselves in need of grace.

"We need the blistered cry of honest voices laughing together with tears in our eyes (a desperate prayer, yes?) at how the Light always sneaks up behind us, even when the black is at its inkiest. We need to learn to trace grace's fingerprint on the horizon, while still walking in the dark."--Kelli Woodford

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Let's not cast any stone. Let's help walk one another home. (adapted from my friend, Tara's favorite quote: "We're all just walking each other home"--Ram Dass)


**Please read: Friends, because of this illness, we have some decisions facing us concerning the girls' education, where we should live {I need to be closer to family who can help, and the girls need more options for their education}, and we are also considering getting someone to help me at home during the week. Please pray as I battle this and as we make these prayerful, very serious decisions for our family?




Friends, on Monday, blushing fire-red cheeks and all, I will be taking Amber Haines' Concrete Words, and running with it--well, she's asked me to, probably only 'cause I was the only one who jumped at it. And I'm so honored! She is no longer doing it--at least for now. We will gather here, every Monday, at my place. Since this will be my first week hosting #concretewords, I am using Amber's words to describe what we do in this community. We "write out spirit" by practicing writing about the invisible using concrete words. I have had fun with this, and I hope you will join in and write your own, or drop by to read! Please help spread {since I'm not near as big as Amber ;)} the word via twitter and facebook, and don't forget to use the hashtag, #concretewords.


Because of what I shared here, I cannot always answer comments and visit very many blogs--although I would love for you to feel a sense of community when you are here, and I hope you do feel right at home--I just think--though we all search for so much interaction and approval from others, that sometimes, maybe in some seasons, sometimes very long seasons, just a quiet place is what we truly need. Just a place to reflect, pray, dream. 

I cherish your words, and the beautiful soul God made you. I am nodding my head, teary-eyed, as I read your hearts here. I'd like you to know that when I see you here, my heart just leaps out of my chest to connect with you--to let you know I hear you! Oh friend, I'm so glad you understand, and thank you for so much grace!  And while you leave such sweet words here, I am probably somewhere cleaning a precious 3-year-old baby girls' messes, listening to an eleven year old playwrite's brave words, or teaching my crew. If you are here, know you are loved, and you're the seasonin' in my soup. 




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