Have you heard this song on pop radio channels? It addresses a truth.
So the next thing you want to ask is…. “Are you talking about Mr. M.?” Not this time. No, when I heard this song the other day…. it made me think about a current situation and a recent “battle” I had to initiate…with my brother.
Surely you have heard the phrase, “tough love” and that is exactly what I am referring to here with the heading… Love is a Battlefield. My brother is going through “something.” Without sharing too much here on my public blog… I will just say I am not exactly sure just what he is going through… but it is something and he has not been himself for weeks. With that being said…. he was not planning to participate with family Christmas get-togethers. This was disturbing and I felt I had to do something. It was more than him being lazy… he’s not being his normal self and never missed a Christmas celebration in the past. So I went to see him the day we (my sister’s family and my brother along with his wife) were supposed to celebrate Christmas together at my house.
He had not answered his phone for the previous 24 hours – so I just went over there and showed up on his doorstep. As his sister I had to intervene… let him know that I was concerned along with about 45 minutes worth of a speech about getting back to living… and making the choice to ‘do something’ for himself in the midst of his current crisis.
Something I said clicked, for that day at least… he decided to jump a hurdle in his life he had been avoiding – a face to face conversation he was dreading with his boss and then he ended up coming to my house that night as planned for our celebration.
Hoping he had turned the corner, I was expecting him to also come to our aunt’s house the next day for the extended family celebration on our mother’s side of the family. Sadly he disappointed us and didn’t show. So much for my enlightening speech… but hopefully he will pick himself up out of this muck, brush himself off, and move forward from here…. facing what life has around the corner and making the most of it.
That’s all any of us can do when crisis comes our way, right? Hibernating and closing ourselves off from the rest of the world, pretending somehow the bad thing will go away…. that doesn’t work.
So battlefields are still necessary sometimes… when it comes to loving someone. Because sometimes you have to tell them things and require they face some things that are hard for them…. as well as you at the same time. But you still have to give them a hands up and word of encouragement along the way… even in the midst of that battle. I am trying. Still learning but I am trying.
We had a good Christmas together… but he still needs encouragement… and lots of prayers.
Hope your Christmas was also a Merry one…even though ‘life doesn’t stop for Christmas.’
Find yourself… keeping it real.
2 comments:
Love does seem like a battlefield, often. But that may be the price to pay when sparks fly in the chemistry department.
I've lived long enough to know it needn't be that way, but as in all relationships, the mix of ingredients is highly variable, at times combustible, and something most of us wouldn't want to live without...
Make love, not war - still a better solution. If you can find it.
As much as necessary.
Post a Comment