"How Lonely Sits the City Once Great With People..."

Someone once told me that you build your life around your love and not the other way around. That person is probably reading this right now and you know who you are. On all accounts, you're right--at least for me, or any person who wishes to be human.

Tonight is the Ninth of Av--the saddest day of the Jewish year. Eicha was chanted, and for the first time, I could chant along. It's amazing what self-motivation can accomplish. At the end, a mourner broke down and cried for more than Jerusalem. I cried with her. There were seven of us in the room listening to her cry, waiting for the silence to fill up the sobs so we would no longer have to lament the sobs filling the silence.

So I began to think. Not only do you build your life around your love, but your death, as well. I have a gift that I deem curse more often and it is the gift of empathy. I could hear her thoughts; how she would go home this night and every night for the rest of her life and he would never be there anymore. I thought, what would I do? I would die, inadvertently, of an empty life. Because eventually, the life you build around around your love sheds away and it's only the love. Without it, there's no life left, save for the ghost--and memories, most often, simply do not suffice.

I have hope:
The kindness of the Lord has not ended
His mercies are not spent.
They are renewed every morning--
Ample is Your grace!
"The Lord is my portion," I say with full heart;
Therefore I will hope in Him. -Eicha (by Yerumiah aka Jeremiah) 3:21-24 (Lamentations)