Behind the Barbed Wire

For the better part of my adult life, since college, I have lived behind fences of barbed wire.

No!  I've not been in prison.

But I have not always lived in places where my job and my nationality have been looked at very favourably.  Where, while we have tried to bring peace, stability, and sovereignty, we are still at risk.

So I live behind barbed wire. 

Don't get me wrong, I can get out.  This city is AMAZING!  The food...to die for.   The traffic - very similar, if not worse, to L.A. (yes, it's possible).   The people - searching.   Looking to belong.   Trying to keep up with the Jones's.  Although, over here, it might be "keeping up with the Saliba's".

Anyhow....at the end of a shopping outing, a beach excursion, an amazing brunch on the Corniche,  a day of antique shopping, I go back behind the barbed wire.

From my porch I have the most amazing view of the Mediterranean Ocean - through the barbed wire.

Other than San Diego, CA and Corolla, NC, I have never seen more beautiful sunsets - through the barbed wire.   I love my piece of peace and tranquility, but it's through the barbed wire I get to enjoy it.  

At the end of the day, I can't leave whenever I want.  I can't tear down the barbed wire.   I can't pay someone to remove it.   I can't will it to be gone.   

While my barbed wire is literal, I know figurative barbed wire exists everywhere.

People live behind barbed wire with the hope that no one will notice the wire.   That others won't notice they don't have it all together?  That behind the barbed wire they feel like no one can hurt them, touch them, effect them.

 Are YOU choosing to live behind your figurative barbed wire?  

Someday...I know I won't always live behind barbed wire.    I'll be able to go to the grocery store whenever I want (not only when there is a scheduled outing).  I can stop at the local Starbucks on my way home from a weekend ski trip and not have to ask "permission".   Literal barbed wire is way easier to tear down than figurative barbed fences.  

It's time to get the wire cutters out.   It's time to tear down those walls.   Barbed wire is comfortable because you can see through the wire yet still have something between you and what you presume will hurt you.  You pretend your participating, your engaging, but you aren't.  You are still separating yourself from whatever it is on the other side of the wire.   You're depriving yourself of life, of love, of friendship.  Granted you're always shielding yourself from hurt, pain and disappointment.  But let me tell you a secret:  whether you are behind the barbed wire or not, you can and will still experience hurt, pain and disappointment - that's life! 

It may be really hard to take those first cuts on your own.   Maybe you need someone to help you snip, snip, snip.   Don't shut people out.  Don't pretend anymore that you enjoy looking at life from the outside.   Ask for help, ask for a listening ear.  Let others love and encourage you.  Let them take the kids for the weekend,  buy you a cup of coffee.  Baby steps, but start clipping those wires.

Maybe you are on the other side of the barbed wire...enjoying life, taking it with all its crazy twists and turns and you remember what it's like on the other side.  You can identify those that are shutting themselves off from all the good things their barbed wire is keeping them from. 

Reach out - offer to take the kids, offer to sit and chat over a cup of coffee, mow their lawn, clean their house.  Remember what it was like to live behind that barbed wire and encourage those around you still behind it to make that first clip.  Offer help, no one can do it on their own.

Remember....HE is able.