Reality

About 17 years ago I purchased the ring shown in the picture above, and I've worn it constantly since that time. I bought it even before I had entered the Catholic Church, and I bought it as a stark reminder to myself to live in reality instead of the dreamworld I was so good at fabricating for myself. Reality then seemed harsh. The cross reminded me to stay in reality even when it was not as numbingly comforting as my dreamworld.

Well, you know how when you see something every day, you sometimes don't really see it, or rather, it takes something special to really see it again? Tonight at the Easter Vigil I was sitting with the choir, listening to one of the long readings. I looked at my ring and began to remember back to when I first started wearing it. And suddenly it hit me. The reality I longed for, the reality I truly needed in order to be called out of my dreamworld, IS right there on that cross. It has been with me always, constantly. It is Love, and Love has been waiting for me to see that harshness is not the essence of reality. Rather, the harshness I've experienced comes from the loneliness of living in a dreamworld.