Boundary lines in pleasant places.....

I'm feeling grateful, I think you often see that I write when I am sad or when I feel incredibly blessed. I won't apologize for it, I admire my own ability to empathize with others. It's my gift.... the gift of my heart breaking when I see so many others broken or sharing my own disillusions. I like that I take sentimental risks, that I'm not afraid of vulnerability. I think I'm beginning to understand that if I take risks, they leave me vulnerable and at times those risks scar me. But if I never did risk,...if I became so afraid....so guarded, I would eventually become a bitter, distrustful soul and I wasn't created for that. I was created for wonder, for risks, to enjoy beauty, to experience the entire gamut of emotions without fear of retribution or shame. It opens me up for endless opportunities to grow, to gain wisdom and to love.


It's at times like these that I catch myself staring at my oldest daughter... a child, in the infancy of her womanhood. I see the way the light shines in those dark eyes, so soulful, making me want to make sure that she remembers mine. Her hair gleams in the sun, lazily laying down her back reminding me that she is a girl-child, morphing. She knows what it's like to still be vulnerable, to take risks, to live in the moment, to cry, to long for comfort and get excited over the tiniest detail. As we grow, we develop walls, barricades, boundaries against those things that cause us pain or just because we learn that some paths are not prudent. I hope to teach her that boundaries are good, walls and barricades are not. That she can look to me to help her define them without losing the magic in letting her soul breathe. If I can't help her, I want her to have faith in her savior, in his grace. He will guide her, speak to her heart and let her experience joy in that unencumbered way that she lives ever present in the moment of now, to continue to wonder, to understand that love is not an emotion..it's a state of being. It's extending grace to others, it's compassionately feeling the joy, happiness or heartbreak of others. I hope that my daughters learn that boundaries are pleasant, necessary, they guard their heart, just to keep their hearts tender and vulnerable to the plights of others.