Letters From Betty

Dearest One,

I’m remembering our last time together. I miss you terribly. Words are inadequate in endeavoring to express my heartfelt love for you. We have traveled together in our suffering and our sorrows as well as our joys. I am deeply grateful for the gift of a true sister in the Spirit. I would venture to say that there are not many friends who share in such a beautiful, sacred, and loving relationship.

I have a sense that this crucible of suffering you have been caught up in for so long will soon be coming to closure. The “why” of such brutal affliction is beyond our finite comprehension. Only God can plumb the deep. A line I wrote many years ago during the darkest days of my depression comes to mind: “Suffering, suffering, suffering, etching its way through my calloused heart.” And, as our beloved Saint Julian of Norwich reminds us, “All shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

Beyond knowing, God has divinely designed a way for the two of us—the Way of Love. What a supremely precious gift we have shared for most of our lives. It is a gift that continues to transcend–spirit touching spirit. We are both held unconditionally in it and experience, moment by moment, that such a Love cannot be said but can only be felt with the heart. Might we pray together that we would know more deeply Whose and who we are, claiming more fully our goodness and beauty?

Look towards the Light, precious friend. It will lead you through your darkness. As you well know, I have been through dark and lonely places, but I also have come to know the One who continues to lead me through them. As we choose to embrace the joys and the sorrows of each necessary season in faith and trust, the fog shrouding our soul slowly lifts and we behold, as in a glass, His glory and our glory in Him. Gradually then, we begin to mirror this eternal light of Love, claiming our true nature. After all these years, I still can’t explain it, but I can tell you it is so because I have experienced it.

Beholding the Beloved, trusting in His mercy,

Betty