There are times when Life seems to contain more than possibly can be processed. This happened over the week-end.
We were attending the really sweet and beautiful wedding of a amazing couple getting married in their 30′s and who have dedicated their lives thus far to working in refugee areas around the world–Darfur and violence-torn areas in Africa, for example. She is a member of our extended family who has long held a special place in our lives. This wedding was one of those pure experiences–no drama, no big underlying family dynamics, but an honest simplicity in which everyone was made to feel comfortable and welcomed. Though a modest size wedding of around 100, there were guests from around the world. Joy and love were palpable.
After the ceremony and dinner, celebratory dancing got under way and I could sense the deep connections that people were experiencing. All of a sudden, the music stopped. Someone was down. It was a deeply loved man, the step-father of the bride. Within seconds, she (a nurse) in her bridal dress and another person were working on him, doing CPR with his heart and through mouth-to-mouth. No breath. No pulse. Unconscious. Loved ones in the room, of course, were in shock, tears and witnessing a scene that seemed from another place and time. Paramedics eventually arrived, and after some time, regained a pulse. Some of us gathered in the local hospital’s emergency waiting room.
After a long night and morning, the step-dad regained consciousness, and it looks like there is no permanent damage. It seems we have a miracle. Had this happened to him when he was by himself on his boat, or driving in a car, or on a ladder working on his house, the ending would have been quite different. Rather, it happened when all those he most loves and who most love him were right there.
That night, Love wore many faces and was experienced and expressed under paradoxical, almost unimaginable circumstances that were juxtaposed in such as way that is inescapable. The paradox is always here–this one happened to be magnified a hundred-fold. This is the way paradox works– it smashes any preconception about how “it” is supposed to work. They put our ideas, beliefs, illusions, our cherished preconceptions right int front of our nose. They have the power to awaken.
The sharing of this experience from people from many areas around the globe will be rippling out for sometime to come. None of us will ever be the same. Life is not what we think–it is itself.
Blessings,
Roxanne
