My cloud of witnesses
Every day, my friend Ed from Beaver Falls sends me a text saying “hi.” I don’t always respond, but when I do, we exchange a message or two. Then I go about my day and forget about our interaction until the next day when he texts “hi” again. I think It’s pretty cool that he takes time to check on me everyday. We live in different places, do different things, but I can always count on him to say “hi.”
I have a friend named Nathan K who writes a song every day. I don’t hear the majority of them and don’t even talk to him that often, but I often think about how he’s gonna be writing another secret banger at some point in the same day we share. I have another friend named Kevin who wears a pair of red swim trunks as his daily trousers. Sadly, he did confess to me that he wore a pair of jeans to his daughter Maddy’s college tour recently—a bit of a PR dilemma if you ask me. But most likely today, as I write this, Kevin is wearing those daggone red shorts. Praise God.
My friend John comes up with recurring events and invites his friends to them. John’s been doing this since I met him eight years ago. For example, he hosts Sci-fi Sunday where people get together to watch a sci-fi movie every Sunday. Or Quiche and Crafts, where they eat quiche and also do crafts. Or my personal favorite, Soup and Vespers. Predictably, they have soup and pray Vespers. Being faithful doesn’t need to be so complicated. At least that’s what I’ve learned from John. His life is rhythmic.
I have a friend named Campbell who wears pajamas to bed every night. I wear the t-shirt I wore during the day to bed, so it’s fun to know that Campbell has a whole extra genre of clothing I don’t have. When I was a young man, I used to take pride in owning only the “essentials,” but now I’m starting to see it differently. I kind of like the idea of having pajamas. I think being committed to one’s coziness is more spiritually formative than I previously estimated and something I ought to value more as I get older. Thanks Campbell.
Campbell’s husband Sawyer became a realtor two years ago. It’s been hard work for him; work that’s taken courage to keep doing. It’s maybe the kind of work that he never imagined doing, but now is being brave enough to stick with and do creatively. I’m really proud of him and have been inspired to tap into that same kind of courage myself.
My cloud of witnesses. And just a fraction really. I didn’t even begin to talk about Abigail, Daniel, or Samuel. All of my friends give me the courage to keep saying “hi” on this email list. Though far less frequent and much wordier than Ed, this is my way of being faithful to something. To keep showing up. And I’m happy to say this particular essay constitutes a celebration of sorts: one year of consistently sending emails like this one! Thank you for reading them. It really has been a gift to keep this thread in front of my eyes. To have this space to process the disorienting wonder of existence. To remember that I have a story to share. To continue saying “hi.”
