It's called Global Colding.

Look it up. It will be in the cultural encyclopedia, right next to "the cause of death in the human heart." Yep. They say we'll die by ice or we'll die by fire. I definitely say ice. Our hearts are slowly freezing every chance they get. Naturally. Humanly. Easily. Numbly, growing colder and colder...until all that remains is a calloused, cold heart. And the scariest thing, we live and conduct our normal lives with these cold hearts.

The other day I cut into the side of my thumb really deeply with a sharp steak knife. Needless to say, I am still recovering--it probably could have used a few stitches, but I'm toughing it out. One of the moments that stuck out to me right after I stabbed myself was the need to examine the top of my thumb, since the stab wound itself was painless and the tip of my thumb, well, I didn't feel anything in the tip of my thumb! It was void of feeling, numb. Immediately I thought I had severed major nerves. Assuming the worst. And yes, most feeling has come back into my thumb. But the surrounding area is still in trauma and I definitely did some damage to nerves and tissue. That is the most bothersome aspect; that I cannot feel the half-of-an inch space along the back of my thumb. No, I'm not sad that I'm going to have a nice scar on my thumb, or that it may feel and move differently for years to come but that my thumb doesn't feel 100%! Our bodies were made to feel, to experience fullness!

When humans engage with one another; whether it's family, friendships or romantic interests, things start to crack. Walls come down. Things heat up. Ice starts melting. The pendulum of emotions swings. And things get...messy. Human relationships are messy. And hard. And beautiful. Because we're all learners of them. When we drink deeply of love, we are awakened to it's warmth. In the presence of fire there is an increasing absence of ice. When I looked up antonyms for warmth, I found words like aloofness, stoicism, unconcern, coldness, frigidity. Brrrr, it's getting cold in here.

I would rather, tales of deep heartache than stories of facts and figures. I would rather scars of experience than a numb acquaintance with safety.
May we choose to engage ourselves.