August 2002: Greenbelt - A kiss goodbye

A kiss goodbye

There are flowers by the roadside. A life prematurely extinguished. Someone who lived and loved cut short in their tracks. Those left behind come to grieve and weep and say goodbye. Each time they return there is a little more letting go. Kissing goodbye to the pain, the regrets, the fears that torment.

There was something about Jesus that enabled people to start letting go, like the woman who wept over his feet, covering them with kisses and perfume. What fears, what shame, what hurt was she kissing goodbye?

What do you want to kiss goodbye? Perhaps you are captive to a memory of which you are ashamed, or oppressed by the fear of what lies ahead. Perhaps there is a hurt you hold onto, an anxiety of which you wish you were set free.

Take the stamp, and after pressing it gently onto the ink pad, place your kiss goodbye somewhere on the shrine. Imagine yourself with Jesus letting go of a little of the pain, a little of the fear. Perhaps there will be tears. Before you go, spray yourself with perfume. And when you are tempted to hold onto the hurt, let the fragrance remind you that you have indeed started to kiss it goodbye.

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