We’re all just walking each other home. I heard someone say, “We’re all just dragging each other home.” Sometimes it feels that way. On this journey we call life, we need one another. In a world increasingly fragmented and broken, it can seem impossible to find the kind of connection that is healing and supportive, in fact we can begin to believe it doesn’t exist. All of the structures that have formerly held society together are disappearing. Families have fallen apart. Government is falling apart. Division and brokenness are all the younger generations have known.
I was privileged to have a wonderful intact family with two loving parents. I was also privileged to be beside both of them as they took their last breath and made that move from this realm to the next. When I was notified that my mother was at the end of her journey, I quickly drove five hours to be at her side. After a long night of struggle, her life finally ended. I wanted to hold onto her skirt, the way I did when I was small and say, “Mommy don’t go, take me with you.” But I had gone as far up that road with her as was possible. She walked with me all that way, watching over me, taking care of me, and loving me. At the last, I sat with her and helped her to finish that journey. No longer will she be there with encouragement and love, but she walked me all the way to that final moment, and I was there for her at the end.
I no longer have my parents in my life, but their love and constant caring have helped me to be equipped to be there for others who need someone to walk with them. We can journey with those who are suffering, lost and hopeless. Our love and kindness can help to smooth what is often an unbearably painful journey. Without one another we will never make it. Isolation and distancing are the order of the day, but we can allow ourselves to lose the contact with one another that we so desperately need. We were made to be connected.
Let’s all just hold hands and walk each other home.