Saturday, February 25, 2012

Fog

This time of year is always hard.  Even when I am not actively thinking about my Dad, the knowledge that this is when he died is always there.  Some years are better than others; this year has been particularly hard.  On a positive note, I have been more sad this year.  :)  I know that may sound contradictory, but too often I don't feel anything, or not enough, anyway, so I will take sad.  But the fog is hard.  It makes it hard to move, hard to think, hard to get up in the morning, and hard to care about anything.

Today, a friend sent me this, and this quote broke through the fog, bringing me to tears:

"'So I would like to remind the couples who are experiencing the condition of infertility, that their vocation to marriage is no less because of this. Spouses, for their own baptismal and marriage vocation, are called to cooperate with God in the creation of a new humanity. The vocation to love, in fact, is a vocation to the gift of self and this is a possibility that no organic condition can prevent. There, where science has not yet found an answer, the answer that gives light comes from Christ.'”  


Ahhh.  Marriage itself is a calling.  Marriage itself is valued by God.  Thank you, Mr. Pope (Your Holiness?) for saying this, for shining light on hope for the hopeless, for speaking Truth where often there is none.  


I think this is also a good reminder that there are many things that are complete on their own, namely a person.  A single person is complete by his/herself and created.  A life, conceived in any manner, is complete and created by God.  LIFE is created by God.  LIFE is all around us: plants, trees, birds, fish, dogs, giraffes, babies, the elderly -- it is all life and it is GOOD.


I will say more about LIFE later.  For now, know that you, your marriage, your very being, is a life called unto God. 

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Empty

Tonight I sat at my mom's house and noticed something I had never noticed before: the way the picture wall is arranged reflects the stages of her children's lives.  I had noticed the wedding picture of my brother and his wife, and the photo of me and my husband that was added after we were married.  My sister isn't on this particular wall (there are several photo walls in their home,) because she is not married yet.  What drew my attention tonight is that my mom has started adding pictures of her grandkids.  So, my brother and sister-in-law's wedding photo is surrounded by several pictures of their son, their daughter, and all of them as a family.  The other side of the wall contains one photo of Joe and I on our wedding day.  No other photos surround us.  We are alone on an empty side of the wall.  And that makes me really sad.  In this instance, the sadness isn't necessarily for us, though there is an element of that to everything, it seems; this sadness is for my mom, my dear, sweet mother who would love a house full of grandchildren and so far has only two.  What if we never add to that wall?  That makes me sad for her.  This infertility thing not only involves the hopes of the two people trying to have a baby.  It involves the hopes of grandparents-to-be, aunts and uncles in waiting, cousins who would love playmates, and friends who want to share this stage of life with us.  It is hard to look beyond my own pain and sadness at this situation to see this, but sometimes I can look beyond the edges of it, like looking to the edge of a field, and catch a glimpse of how it might affect others.  It's blurry, but it's there.  Sometimes it makes it easier, focusing on someone else's perspective of the situation, and sometimes it just knocks the wind out of me, the knowledge that I am, again, albeit through no control of my own, letting people down.  And that stinks.