and.

 I was listening to On Being with Krista Tippett a few days ago. She was interviewing Craig Minowa the founder, singer, and songwriter of the alternative rock band Cloud Cult.

Cloud Cult’s course was altered the day Craig and his wife suffered the loss of a child. They poured their grief into their music and that loss became a lever for them to stand on. One that would shift the world a bit through their music. As Krista says "The music that has emerged ever since has spanned the human experience from the rawest grief to the fiercest hope." I was drawn deeply into the story as Craig talked about his supporters as being seekers. They come to their shows with their masks down because they felt so comfortable in doing so. He says “they come and they share their stories and you find out how gorgeous people are, and we just have to keep working to peel those layers of skin off so that everybody can walk around in their gorgeousness.”

How deeply stunning are those words?

Lately I've been standing in the margins watching my daughter share her gorgeousness.

She is sharing the truths of her story, her grief, her loss, her suffering, her healing, and her hope through community presentations and the work we do with Ophelia’s Place.

Afterwards I watch people come forward to connect their loss with hers, to find hope in the suffering, to be comforted - not in the all or nothing of grief or recovery but in the sacred space of both… loss and healing. 

I realize once again that life is not black or white, it’s black and white. It’s suffering and sweetness. It’s fear and courage. It’s shame and grace. It’s uncertainty and faith.

After her presentations we process, which is code for her dissecting it all and me telling her it was perfect. (She tells me she can’t trust me because I’m her mom and I think her handwriting should be a font.)  But I know the truth and the truth is this… when we take our masks off and share our hurting and healing hearts we build a community of gorgeousness.

It’s a bit surreal as I stand in the back of the room and witness this girl’s courage to speak so openly and honestly about the tragedy and triumphs of her life.

I want to protect her from the risk of that kind of vulnerability… but it’s become her lever to stand on and It’s the story of Ophelia’s Place and the story of a community of seekers that together have shifted the world a bit. 

And

it’s utterly gorgeous.