Cruising Through Life

 She calls me her "Grief Cruise Buddy." Odd title, but it is just that. The first cruise we embarked on was a year after her 30-year-old son died tragically; the next one was immediately after the death of her husband of 45 years (who suffered nearly 10 years of strokes and terrible illness). 

We have the recipe.

 You get on a boat for a cheap and short cruise, with your friend that you've known for several decades. You've raised your kids, you've had drama, lots of life with buckets of good, bad, the ugly and the wonderful. You throw on your best bathing suit and float for days, laughing, crying, thinking, musing over all the parts of what was before with that loved one, starting with the beginning. Then you eat and drink well, float some more, cry again, laugh again, listen to both excellent and sorry music, order a divinely-inspired coffee, sleep like a Queen and then do it over the next day. There were a couple thousand people (on this last boat) and between the two of us (we are both obnoxious extroverts) we met pretty much everyone. On the island, we danced along with the native shop owners and bought cheap junk for our grandkids. 

But in the in-between, there is that gossamer but mighty thread of grace that ties us together and runs through both of us's (not a word, but it fits) bones. She has faced down the devil with the still, small voice of her savior, her heart prostrate on the floor, calling to Him for the things that are unfaceable, impossible. Where some crumble and never rise again, she has lived palms up and trusting. I saw her love her husband well all these icky last years, growing stronger in her devotion than before, when things were easier. This is the love they don't know about in the movies, because it is actually true, actually gritty. 

The horizon before her is different, unknowable. Grown children and grandchildren live in the wake, busy, budding. Her world just did a sea-change. I'm thankful we've both had the privileges of life, of grief, of faith in the true Christ.

I pray that He will give her gentle waves in these days, sweet breezes, more life and many more adventures to come.