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You hardly imagined standing here,
everything you ever loved suddenly returned to you,
looking you in the eye and calling your name.
And now you do not know how to abide this hole
in the center of your chest,
where a door slams shut
and swings open at the same time,
turning on the hinge of your aching
and hopeful heart.
I tell you,
this is not a banishment from the garden.
This is an invitation, a choice, a threshold, a gate.
This is your life calling to you from a place you could never have dreamed,
but now that you have glimpsed its edge,
you cannot imagine choosing any other way.
So let the tears come as anointing, as consecration,
and then let them go.
Let this blessing gather itself around you.
Let it give you what you will need for this journey.
You will not remember the words—
they do not matter.
All you need to remember is how it sounded
when you stood in the place of death
and heard the living call your name.
~ Jan Richardson, The Magdalene's Blessing For Easter Day
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