|
The Yellow Balloon
by Kate Hurley The kind of laugh that makes you Look up for a moment And remember there is sky there. With hope falling on every syllable, she said "this is for you." She reached her hand towards me Holding the string of a Yellow balloon. I hesitated And the moment was heavy With a hundred questions I used to laugh like that But somewhere along the way I realized That beauty came with pain And so I chose a life that was somewhere between Pain and beautiful A life that was very comfortable But very alone A life Without grief But also without reverie. This gift that she offered me This gift of the yellow balloon It wasn't in-between. It was beautiful I had forgotten what beautiful looked like So I hesitated And this little girl, didn't she understand How different the worlds we came from? Her life filled with Food stamps and trailer parks Mine filled with Screens and fences Her people trying to forgive Their hundreds of years in chains My people trying to understand How we could ever do anything so cruel Shouldn't I be the one giving something to her? And so I hesitated And that little girl, if she could see What was inside of me She wouldn't want to give me that yellow balloon Despite my neat house and my Church every Sunday I am very scared Like a little girl with butterfly barrettes. I live with thoughts dark and sad And I wonder if anyone would love me If they really knew me. I didn't deserve this gift. And so I hesitated. Finally, I bent down with tears in my eyes and said "Honey, I don't think I should take this ballon away from you. " "But I want to give it to you" she said back. She blinked "I have an idea.Let's hold on to it together, and then we can let it go!" I put my hand over hers. "1.2..3!" We opened our hands And our shackles fell In that moment I felt it again: Grief and reverie But this time I wanted them both. I wanted all of it. Together we watched the balloon floating in the distance Sunlight falling on us like baptism Like reckless mercy Like relentless love I looked down at the girl, Our hands still intertwined And I realized that Despite all of our differences In that moment we were just two wayward children That had seen a glimpse of home. Kate Hurley is a writer, worship leader, and teacher. She writes the popular blog The Sexy Celibate and wrote a book called Cupid is a Procrastinator: Making Sense of the Unexpected Single Life. The mission statement of her life is "To paint an accurate picture of a passionate God." Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |