Ten Minute Missive

Over the weekend I read a story that involved two cavers exploring a cave and deciding to chip away at a small hole in a cave wall to explore the cavern beyond. That image is still with me today.

I think about how some relationships get chipped away, one conversation at a time, until whatever foundation that once held it strong erodes and it all falls down upon them.

I think about how a person’s very self can get chipped away by the incessant harping, criticizing, and belittling until the person is but a shell of who they once were.

I think about how faith can be chipped away until that faith is gone.

I think about a body’s health chipped away by disease and neglect.

I think about the chipping away.

But it doesn’t have to be all bad, right? It is possible to chip away the old, worn, and diseased until the strong, healthy, and stable appears.

Chip away the barriers erected to keep folks out and find there are many just waiting to join you once you break through to the space beyond.

Chip away the stone to the marble statue beneath.

Today feels like the end of some things. I am trying to hold on to the idea that what will be left is the best of what can be. That after all is chipped away and swept away, the remaining will not only be good but more beautiful than I could have ever had hoped for.

But the pile of dust and rocks worries me. Has too much been chipped away?

Or will the Portland cement of my life to come to my aid – collecting my bits and pieces into something stronger than I was before. It will look different, be different. But I am the aggregate mixed with the slurry, waiting to knit back together into something able to withstand tomorrow’s chipping away.

All my support and “Portland cement” to those who need it – together we are stronger, together we are better. We will chip away at the barriers ahead–it may be slow going and painful but we will get through this. We will be like those cavers who knew that by chipping away the hard rock, something wonderful awaits.