While visiting the memorial park where Jud is buried, a mother (whom I met before) was kneeling by her 31-year-old son’s gravesite.  She was wailing and howling as she rocked herself back and forth, holding an object close to her chest.  To keep from disturbing her, I remained in my car.  But my window was down and her raw, heart-wrenching cries reverberated through my vehicle, tearing at my heart.

Yet, as I watched and listened to this sacred, private moment, tears flowing down my cheek, I found myself oddly comforted by the familiarity of her sounds.

I realized it was the first time I have ever heard, in person, the passionate cries of a broken mother coming from a voice other than my own.  These were the same sounds that periodically fill the closet of our home, my place of refuge for my most intense emoting.  And it was as though the brokenness of my heart was finding expression and solidarity in her guttural, visceral lament.

As I silently partook in her grief, my soul was strangely soothed by the commonality of our experience.

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Eyes that See & Judson’s Legacy Update 

• TONIGHT (7/1 at 6 pm PST) and TOMORROW (7/2 at 3 pm PST) you can catch a live internet stream of my full-hour interview with Egypt McKee on Life Unplugged TV. 
  Click here to watch at those times!