comfort and joy

 

We can indulge ourselves in comfort food. We may earn a comfortable living, and dwell in the coziest comforts of home. Our life may be surrounded by all the latest and greatest in creature comforts so that we almost never have to lift a finger or break a sweat.

And yet our greatest comfort comes from none of these things. In our happiest of times, and in our most sorrowful of times, true comfort and joy resides in the arms of someone who loves and understands us. Someone we love in return. What an extraordinary thing the embrace of another is. Studies have proven the power of loving touch in healing both the body and the soul……so why don’t we engage in this more often? What holds us back from the very thing we need the most?

Children know. Hugs for them come easily and frequently. These hugs are whole-hearted and open and occasionally sloppy, but never given with hesitancy or embarrassment. Children feel the desire to draw close to a loved one and they respond to this desire earnestly every time. Why would they not? Try to stop a two year old from leaping into the arms of her mother when she is so inclined and it will be like trying to hold back rain from falling from the sky. It’s natural. It’s healing. It’s comfort and nourishment in its purest form.

As a portrait photographer I am most attracted and intrigued by moments of intimacy. Not contrived moments, but the ones that occur by invitation or accident while in the midst of trying to orchestrate togetherness for the sake of a pleasing portrait. These tender moments are the ones I pray to be ready for with camera. Partly because I want to present the parents with genuine and emotional images, but also because these are the moments that I personally want to capture on film, and the kind of images I want to look at again and again. It’s like the kid in me is reaching out saying, “look closely……remember…….*this* is the stuff of life……this is why you were born”. Spiritual connection to our source and loving physical connection to each other are really one and the same.

Each year when I was a child my family would gather around the television to watch “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas”. We didn’t have the benefit of videos back then to watch our favorite programs over and over so this was a much anticipated once a year event. When the end of the program neared, and all those crazy who’s in who-ville were gathered together holding hands and singing despite having had every shred of Christmas stolen from them, we’d hear the voice of Boris Karloff saying “Christmas day is in our grasp, so long as we have hands to clasp”. Without fail this would bring me tears, I mean big old alligator tears that lasted long after the final credits rolled across the screen. I’d try to hide this from my family because even as a young girl I was fairly certain it wasn’t normal to cry at the end of “The Grinch who stole Christmas”, but I was always so moved I couldn‘t help it. I felt the truth of it.

So as we now enter the season of comfort and joy, fancy decorations and pretty packages, of rushing about and excess in food and drink, I want to remember those who’s in Who-ville holding hands. Slow down. Breathe deeply. Less is more. Embrace each other openly, often, and without hesitation.

 

“Christmas day is in our grasp, so long as we have hands to clasp.”

 

~Cynthia