Humans are funny creatures.

We laugh, we cry, we do the hokey-pokey. Some choreograph dances, some cure cancer, some sell donkeys, some live on Wall Street. Then there are the bloggers… 

We make steam fume out each others’ ears; we make tears stream down each others’ cheeks out of sadness and out of hilarity. We make love; we make war; we make pancakes. Yada, yada. As frustrating our differences are, we cannot get enough of one another…

Because we are, in essence, relational beings.

Let’s backup: no human seems, to me, entirely good nor entirely bad. Somehow the two get all jumbled up in us.

Yet, everyone is, at some level, connected to other people, be it two or three hundred. Consider how in middle school we ubiquitously mourn the feeling of not having friends. Consider how our crushes consume us in high school, wondering if there could be mutual chemistry after all. And, our ‘being relational’ is not something we grow out of. Cue grandparents’ undeniable love and spoiling of their grand-babies. 

The buck doesn’t stop there though. We do not merely desire any type of relationship. In the belly of our soul, we want to be loved, wholly and rawly, for we are without makeup, a mask, or GQ muscles. 

I believe, along with German philosopher Martin Heidegger, “we are always being shaped by the questions we are asking.” Only if we are considering the right questions, can we can experience life abundantly and be fulfilled in every nook and cranny of every valley and mountain of our souls. 

I hope this blog helps you and me live in such a way that acknowledges and honors that every person is relational indeed. That it sparks an invitation to a long-lost friend into your home for BBQ chicken. That it invites embracing messy, cry-y hugs. That it leads to giving smiles to the gas station clerk. That it makes us deeper, more intentional people. 

It’s living the idea that open books are more alive than closed ones.

May we bear-hug the messy, the funny, and the mundane together to live abundantly and joyfully always.