The main struggle I encountered while posting this session was naming it. What title do I give to a moment in a person’s life so filled with freedom? The pinnacle of a journey; the epiphany in a struggle; the culmination of all things for which one person struggles?
Freedom Found. I could title this post Freedom Found because of the release Meg experienced. After so many years of carrying her pain, being weighted down to the depths of the ocean by heavy gold bangles, she experienced true freedom from her prison. Freedom reigns in Meg’s heart, now.
Truth in the Midst of Lies. Lungs filling with fresh oxygen after suffocation is thought imminent. It’s how we feel when we can’t discern the voice of truth from the lies, isn’t it? Suffocation. Fiery lungs and watery eyes because truth is the only way we can live. Meg has taken that first breath of life-giving truth after so long of knowing and believing only false things about herself.
Hope Will Come Like the Rain. He will come like the rain. All this time of waiting, trudging, crying, crawling. All these moments when it seemed futile and worthless. One step after the next and for what? For Hope. Because it will come. It will. Like the rain. And it’s here.
I could add the word Love to this title, because Meg is learning how true love acts, how true love loves. Meg is learning how loved people love people and how hurting people hurt people. She is choosing to love rather than to hurt and she is moving beyond hurt into a season of love.
Fight and Courage should be part of this title, too. Do you see the fight pouring from her heart in these images? Watch the courage gleaming in her eyes as she confronts some of the darkest corners of her soul. She faces them with a courageous grace, not backing down, but fighting for something more. Something better than she has always lived for.
In the end, what does a title matter? A picture is worth a thousand titles. I see myself in these images and I think of a title for each part of my own story. Does the title matter as much as the end? The end of our story matters so much more than the beginning.
Her story doesn’t need to be told; it’s nameless because it’s a fight we all face. It’s a pilgrim’s progress we all must traverse.
If you play this song before you scroll through the images you will hear what echoed its every chord in my heart as I photographed, edited, and wrote.
