always love

Beating hearts, human beings, people

Are the fibers of this world.

We choose what we become and what we make. As friendships form, we interweave ourselves with those we love; when they’re gone, it’s as if someone had ripped a hole in the very fabric of our existence.

Then one friend grows to two, to three, to four, until we have a group. How wonderful it is to see our fabrics and stories pieced together in a quilt; to feel needed and to belong.

Or not to belong. What happens to the person who’s piece of the quilt doesn’t quite fit?

Fibers do not only form soft, friendly blankets.

A rope is made of fiber. One strand wrapped around another, each still needed, each still belonging, but each a part of something far more menacing.

No longer welcoming, no longer friendly. Unlike the quilt, each fiber in this mob loses their identity, rejecting those not fitting, rejecting those not meeting their standards.

And to that piece that doesn’t belong, this exclusive rope may seem the best way to escape.

We have a choice.

We can be the rope that coldly denies friendship and community to any who don’t meet our standards. The rope that in its rejection chokes the life out of those we refuse love and belonging.

Or,

We can be the quilt that values every piece in its differences, accepting every one we meet for who they are and loving them as if there were no other way.

Rest in peace Alex.