Sunday, January 6, 2013

"These words will be windows"


Trying to express the unimaginable feeling of a loved one held hostage in words. For the 2 years and 2 months Josh was held captive by the Iranian regime, words were woefully inadequate to describe my feelings. Though I was his voice and I called out for his FREEDOM every moment of every day, when it came to expressing my feelings, I embodied the silence imposed on him. I was full of words I could not say, feelings beyond words.

Words still elude me when I try to capture my journey since he was released. I am full of unfinished thoughts, incomplete sentences…words I cannot say, words that don’t exist.

A beautiful friend encouraged me to find words and to share them at a gathering of friends at his home. These are the words I spoke. As Josh said when he started writing a book to tell his story, “These words will be windows, not walls.”

Ocean of emotion

We were two rivers of life
with intertwined tributaries
flowing in parallel
unable  to meet

When you were FREED
our rivers converged
into the crashing waves
of an ocean
of collective emotion

We crash against each other
and pull apart
with the waves

We swim to the surface
fight to stay afloat

We reach for each other
then try to let go

We forge
our journeys forward
our own rivers
emerging
from our ocean
the source of
our strength
Our collective heart

No comments:

Post a Comment