Loving Back to Life

"Let us hold each other closely and siphon off the pain."   

 James Kavanaugh, Priest and Poet

I have always been deeply moved by that statement--for the times that I have held others closely, for the gift of being held by somebody else. 

So often life deals us the deepest of losses and heartache of sheer anguish.  Nobody needs a list of what I am talking about.  Life teaches painfully.  We bear the scars and wounds that keep on wounding. 

Here's what I have learned.  The question is not why these things happen. The question is why in a world where things go horribly wrong--why is it that we are then embraced by those who love us to siphon off the pain? 

Or, let's go one step more.... 
Have you every experienced the embrace of another human being who loves us back to life?
We know that when people are threatened with hypothermia, the way to survival is to wrap around another person. We can also save a life when we donate a unit of blood.  Can we not say that our spirit can be called back to life by another person?   I know of times when another heartbeat has awakened my heart to life.  And, broken hearts do come back to life again.