Yet another post on how much we need each other

Today I'll go back to Susan Howatch and her novel The Heart Breaker. This was a book that I didn't expect to relate to for a number of reasons, but by about half way through I was almost completely undone. If you haven't read Susan Howatch's books, don't start with this one, (I'd start with Glittering Imagines), but if you like her writing, eventually you will end up here.

Here she is quoting from Mud and stars: the report of a Working Party on the Impact of Hospice Experience on the Church's Ministry of Healing:

All of us, carers and cared for, are on a journey whose destination we understand only dimly: We know we are searching for something, yet the nature of the thing we seek eludes us. On this strange journey, in this tantalising search, we only feel lonely and bemused, in need of guidance, encouragement, companionship. Not always knowing what we are asking for, we reach for the help of others.

More than once I have been confused about the path God has led me on. The whys overwhelmed me, making it nearly impossible for me to see God. I was lonely beyond belief and I needed a fellow traveller to come alongside of me and help carry my burdens. Today I have a special gratitude for those who have hitched my wagon to theirs and helped pulled me through the deep muddy pits. I'm certain that at times you wanted to push me back into the muds, but you allowed God's love to flow through you anyway.

And by the way, I still need you and others to join you. And I need to be able to love you back. I may not be stuck, but I will always need to give and receive protective love to help me continue to mature. We all really do need each other, despite anything our American culture teaches us.