Jagged Edges

“So much of religion and spirituality that is offered to us is about how to sand down the edges. It just so happens that the jagged edges of our humanity are actually what connects us to God and each other.” ~Nadia Bolz-Weber

Have you ever noticed how when you have a new car, there are new cars everywhere you look, or if there is a new baby in your future, pregnant woman abound? Well, these past few weeks my life has been full of new connections and what should arrive one day in my email but the above quotation!

Those connections in my life have been the doctors, the nurses, the nurse-practisers, and the families of other patients, as my husband was moved from room to room on the Step Down Unit of a Toronto hospital. And I never wondered why I, an introvert, was making all these new connections when I should have been sitting quietly in a corner letting the world pass me by. Then Nadia gave me the answer. Connections are made with jagged edges and I certainly had lots of those. Some people, like the nurses, wanted to smooth those edges down just a little by interacting with them, by a smile, or a positive word. While my jagged edges fitted perfectly into the other jagged edges that the families of other patients had. Connections!!

And just like with people, those jagged edges also serve to connect us with whoever or whatever our ‘God’ is. We meet God in our imperfection, in our willingness to be vulnerable, in our questioning, in our hopes and in our fears.

As my husband moves on to the next stage of his healing with the help of the professionals in Rehab, I know that I too will make more connections and that these connections are what will sustain me.

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NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

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