The Cages That We Keep

Weekly I get an email called MOMentum and a few weeks ago I read something that I needed to read but not for the context it was sent. In the email there was a poem:

The small woman
Builds cages for everyone
She
Knows.
While the sage,
Who has to duck her head
When the moon is low,
Keeps dropping keys all night long
For the
Beautiful
Rowdy
Prisoners
– Hafiz

Woah. The small woman builds cages. The wise woman (sage) hands out keys that sets captives free.

I love my family and nearest & dearest fiercely. So fiercely that sometimes I have a hard time giving them love and grace. Who am I to keep them for receiving that? It’s rare but the truth is, sometimes I am the small woman building cages, trapping others with looks of disapproval and grudges. Truthfully, that hurts a little.

I want to be the wise woman, the one dropping keys freeing people right where they are – to be who they are – with acts of mercy and grace and love.

This email came at the time I needed it to. Someone close to me that I’ve let get to me, even though I’m not sure they mean to, had been weighing on my heart. And she’s an important part of our life, she isn’t going anywhere, and when I’m being wholehearted and real – she’s deserving of my mercy, grace and love. I love my family of three so fiercely that sometimes I have a hard time letting past actions and wrongs go. Once I read the words above it struck a cord. My heart needed to read the words sent right to my inbox & I don’t think it’s a coincidence. I’d been praying for help to get my stress towards her in check but as our weekend together drew near my stress level grew bigger. The email kept resounding in my head.

That Saturday came and my stress faded away when I saw her. It was different than the few times before, it was like how it was a couple years ago when the stress didn’t exist.

We spent the afternoon having lunch & the cage I once kept began to slowly unlock. Afterward we were at the local botanical gardens & I felt my heart change. There was the peace I’d been hoping for, praying for, that arrived and a weight was lifted. Things felt easier. Things were easier.

Why?

Because I let the cage open that I’d been keeping inside of my heart. The lock unlocked then slowly disappeared & as the weekend went on the cage was gone too.

I became the wise woman I needed to be and it was freeing. And I learned that showing my family how to love well, give grace to others, is just as important as loving them so fiercely.

Photo taken with our Nikon D3200