COULD :: Five-Minute Friday
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COULD
The word evokes possibilities. The often-quoted and ever-hopeful statement "She thought she could, so she did" comes to mind.
It's normal to get bogged down with a "couldn't" mindset. Heck, right now, it feels almost virtuous to meditate on all that we couldn't and shouldn't do. But what if we flip that mindset on its head? What do these constraints make possible? We know what we couldn't do, but what does that mean we could?
My daughter was supposed to be married in a big wedding in the middle of Fairfield County's famous dogwood blossoms on April 25. We couldn't hold that wedding. What we could do is hold a private ceremony with her dad, the priest officiating, and nine people watching from the empty sanctuary. We could invite friends to secretly decorate the newlyweds' car while we tried to reenact a somewhat sad replica of a wedding celebration with a miniature cake and cheap champagne. We could stand outside and blast confetti guns like a little revolt against the death droplets flying through the air.
Our daughter and son-in-law chose to commit to each other for better or worse, richer or poorer, sickness and health, until death parts them on one of the worst days the Coronoavirus could dish out in our state just over the border from Manhattan. We could choose to celebrate that with whatever we had available. And so we did.
In October, we're going to try again for the family and friends version. We think we know what will actually be possible on that day, surrounded by New England's infamous autumn foliage. We could worry that at any given moment the plans will have to be changed again in order to keep us out of reach from this dreadful disease. We could get paralyzed by the worry of it all and I have.
But somehow, someway, I believe in the middle of all that we discover to be impossible, God's going to open up a way of possibility. God thinks we can trust Him to be good, and so we will.
Welcome back to the new weekly feature, Five-Minute Friday. For the remaining weeks of Ordinary Time, I'll be sharing a five-minute written reflection on one word I've been pondering. (I'm literally setting a stopwatch for five minutes so that I can just write already!)
From the beginning, I've intended to share new writing with you here. The most accessible patron tier is called "Stories" for a reason!
At the same time, it's been a brutal eighteen months for my creative brain. The combination of global crisis and suffering and some extraordinary suffering within our family has pinned me down to the level of "groanings that can not be uttered" more days than not.
Still, I can't not write. And so, I begin again. Thanks for being a listening community and a safe place to offer stories from my everyday experiences and epiphanies. I'm grateful for your companionship.
I'd love to hear your reflections from this week. Feel free to respond to the word "COULD" or just share your own experiences and epiphanies from the week.
*This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up! You can read all the Five-Minute Friday posts here.