in some ways, this is a misnomer.
my friends will tell you i am one of the most heavyhearted people they know.
i have struggled my way through mild depression, even before it could be called post-partum. never enough to be diagnosed, just enough to weigh on me. dysthymia, one psychologist-friend said. i've been to therapy, but never on medication. (yet. when i'm done breastfeeding, i am definitely considering it.)
but i wonder to myself if this is just the condition of those who choose to go deeper.
destined to the depths. with kelp wrapping, shark-fears circling... ever clawing our way to the surface for air. so then, why go deep at all? why dive down below the sparkling surface? why make new discoveries of beauty in the darkness?
because we must.
we must because we are no longer content with words that sail us happily along a glassy-flat experience of a one-sided life.
we must because we know he meets us there, more than anywhere, because we need him most there, where our ships have sunk. where our treasure can be regained.
and we must because of all the souls sinking around us. we are rescuers, those of us willing to plunge beneath lovely exteriors. bringing our diver's headlamp and what oxygen we have to the ones fighting for life. it's not enough for all of us sometimes, especially when the victim thrashes, disconnecting our breathing apparatus, headlocking us in their confusion, and we have to come up for air. but then we're right back in the frothy fray, stealing wriggling ones straight out of hungry jaws.
so this blog's title is maybe more of a twofold prayer, than a descriptor at this point.
a prayer for a light spirit - a spirit full of light, buoyed with purpose.
and a prayer that says, "alight, spirit. speak your light-words through me in this space."
jesus, make it so.