...all that love we humans carry makes a sweet deep sound and we fly a little.~Joy Harjo

I didn't go to Italy after all. The messiness of COVID made it unsafe and I felt too much anxiety to travel. Giovanni and I make the best of it, each of us on opposite shores. The ocean in between is part of our history, part of our marriage. I used to loathe the distance. Over the years, though, I've come to see how that broad, blue expanse can be our pathway to intimacy.

Giovanni texted me, telling me that he'd hung a photo of us on the bedroom wall at his house in Italy. The picture was taken twenty-two years ago when we'd met again after twenty-five years. (All of that story contained in my first book, An Ocean Away).We'd both bought new shoes prior to that reunion--exact replicas without the other's knowledge. Chuck Taylors. We wore them in that photo. "Remember the shoes?" I texted back. "Yes, surely," he replied.

I thought of how our paths had crossed twice in life. How we were still seeing it through with each other, despite all the differences, the cultural divide, our own individual flaws, and the rough patches that every marriage weathers.

He said on a phone call, "I look at that picture every night before I fall asleep. It's right there in front of me." The sweetness of this statement echoed across the ocean. The sound of love speeding like light. Such a sound to behold. Like flying a little.

BLESSING FOR RECEIVING LOVE INSIDE THE MESSINESS

The world can dishearten, with its disasters and disease.

Yet there is still love to be found in the most obscure places.

In distance. In circumstances we didn't expect or want.

We look back, though, and remember the synchronicity in two pairs of shoes.

We recall the people who've miraculously crossed our pathways.

We whisper under our breath. "Oh, yes, there has been good in my life. I moved through that season by God's grace and compassion. His kindness."

"Even when people forgot me, when I've had no one, God, your mercy sustained me."

May you remember the love that's come to you. And if you cannot pull up any remembrance of love on your pathway, that's okay.

May you know now that God places His hand on your head, hangs your photo on the wall.

May you fly a little knowing you are loved by Him.