“One life, but we’re not the same
We get to carry each other, carry each other.”

~U2

Some days feel much like this:

Then the camera zooms out:

And for the really lucky, occasionally, this even happens:

So I’m purely an amateur-level “illustrator”, but I doodled these on a recent day, in an effort to explain the gratitude I was feeling for my husband. Despite being a woman of (too!) many words, I was feeling speechless to explain how grateful I was for everything Jason is for me, while life is crazy and just physically and emotionally exhausting. In drawing how I felt, I was better able to visually capture my sincere THANK YOU.

But these images apply to us all, really, don’t they! Some days we are strongly carrying everyone around us, with heart-bursting love *and* exhausted-smile face. (Sometimes in tears.) We push aside our own needs and set down our selfishness, to hold up those we love and care about. We are tired, we feel there is so much, always, to do, and yet we keep doing it. We love sincerely!

However, the love then only grows further when we stop looking up at everything (and I do mean everything!) in our arms, to see who is there down at our feet. Who do YOU find there, listening, helping, supporting, caring and loving you? These people give us rides, lend us money, call us up, offer advice, love us unconditionally. Without their support beneath us, we wouldn’t have the energy or stamina or support to keep being love for others. We are lifted by our family, our friends old and new, our neighbors, our co-workers, our peers, our companions on the journey. We have the strength to carry others only because we are carried ourselves.

A truly amazing moment is when we see that there are EVEN people willing to carry our burdens FOR US – so we can take a break, regroup, center. These loving people lighten our load so we can pick it up back up refreshed and renewed. They say, simply and sincerely, let me get this for you. They cover our shifts, babysit our kids, do the chores while we sleep, give us a day off. They hoist our burdens on their shoulders (along with their own), so that we can feel light again for a moment. And their love fills our love tank back up, and then we can go do the same for someone else.

We must make sure we both see the love, and be the love. Sometimes we are the carrier… Sometimes we are the carried… But we all carry each other.