Five Minute Friday: On Distance

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On Distance

My grandmother left her family behind in Italy when she married my grandfather and came to America. When my mother married my father, she was the only one of ten siblings to live outside the state of Texas. And when I married in England (though we are both from the South), far from my family, and I came home, it was far enough from the home where I knew family and friends.

In one sense I feel that I am part of a legacy of distance and separation, "leave and cleave," and "forsaking all others." But I know that physical distance does not have to mean a cutting off, an estrangement. My mother remains close to her sisters and brothers; before my grandmother died, she and her family were able to visit sometimes and even now there is an occasional transcontinental trip.

I live in a community of military families--people whose roots must be easily transplanted to other climes, and who learn to forge friendships in the now and nurture truly special ones after transfers interject miles between. And I am a blogger and a reader of blogs, and I have seen friendships grow up between people who, living hundreds of miles apart, have never met, or meet only after months or years of virtual exchanges.

So there is another kind of distance, of which I am hesitant to speak--a distance in the heart. It is protective and cautious and isolating. Not always deliberate. Often fought against. Sometimes conquered. Physical distance may compound, but is not necessary, for this--estrangement. (Should that be the word?) Can you tell why I do not easily expound on it? It is in my own heart. I mourn that it is so.

But it does not defeat me. For I know my true home and destination, and I pray and trust my loved ones will be there with me one day. This is my last and great consolation when I miss them. To be with them where friendships are whole and there is no separation, no distance, but only perfect union in Love.