A Good Friend

 I went to a different cafe this past week. Shocking, I know. :-) If you live in Lock Haven (or Jersey Shore, for that matter), you should definitely check out Avenue 209.You know, it's even got windows all around the shop. The best part about 209 isn't the shop itself, though. It's not even the drinks, which is saying a lot since the chai tea latte is amazing.
It's the atmosphere.
There's something about it that's so welcoming. And when I really want to write, but can't seem to focus in my dorm, I go there. I can sit there for hours and just...imagine.
What's even better is the people, though. I tend to have some pretty deep conversations there, and one specifically comes to mind right now. A good friend once told me people are too guarded, too closed, too intent on looking the way they think they should. What would happen, he made me wonder, if  we just told our friends the truth when they asked how we're doing?  It was this discussion that inspired me to write. Here's what I came up with a little while ago:

I am broken, I should say. Cracked at least.

Honestly lost, but pretending to be unblemished.

I am crossing my arms, covering the beating heart in my

chest because I should be saved, and holy people are not

human.

But I am.

Human.

Ugly as black, shattered coal,

aching to heal,

my edges dull as jagged fault lines in clay.

Clay is meant to be a vessel, I do not say,

and what can I hold when I am crumbling, parched and dusty in a potter’s hands?

But maybe I am not meant to hold, but to let go, to set free, to illuminate.

It is that pretensions are bushels to hide behind, not flaws and cracks that widen.

If I reveal my heart of flesh, uncross my arms, my walls,

you will see that I am human.

And so, God is not.  

I'm not suggesting we bare our souls to everyone who asks, but what if you knew you weren't the only one wondering if you can live up to everyone's expectations? What if you found out your friend had the same health issues you did? Guilt or doubt or shame wouldn't be the result. But maybe a knowledge that God chooses people like everyone else, would be.