TRUST, LOVE, AND VULNERABILITY! A LOVE CRY
- Latoya Hazell-Alcide
- Feb 20
- 2 min read
Did you know the porcupines have more than 30,000 quills covering the rear part of their body? This lightweight, short and stout animal that only grows a length of 18-23 inches and weight a whopping 10-28 pounds can kill anything which it defends itself against. A porcupine can remove other porcupine’s quills by grabbing a hold of them with their incisors and using its front feet. Did you also know that the covering of quills is their armor and although stout and slow, what is not slow is how quickly and easily it is for quills to detach when touched? I was in awe and if you didn’t know either, come sit on the couch with me. As I continued to learn, what really caused me hold my breath was that on each of these quills is a small ‘barb’ on the end of them in order to attach itself beneath the skin of its victim and they will need to be removed with urgency. Why? I am sure you are asking! If not removed, the quill will continue to penetrate deeper into the skin, up to one inch a day and if it is not removed and it hits a major organ, the victim/predator can die. You may be wondering what on earth this daunting lesson on porcupines have to do with today the “love day” Valentine’s Day. I am going to tell you!
My dear friend Desiree called me early this morning to remind me of an experience we had where the porcupine gave us life lessons about enduring love. Today she was going to be giving devotional at her school and as she shared, she gave me some more of these cool facts about the animal. Our relational lessons turned into spiritual lessons quickly as the Holy Spirit did another one of the Emmaus miracles and dropped into our conversations. We were in awe and I felt that it was share worthy.
When we met, we made sure to not allow anyone close because if they did, they, would experience what I call “The Porcupine’s Armor,” defenses and impenetrable walls raised to protect ourselves because of past experiences.
There would be a fight response: Someone would get hurt by the ‘quills’ of words and actions.
There would be a flight response: Someone would get hurt by the withdrawal and avoidance in the friendship
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In other words, someone would feel the pain of our human attacks which would wound the person, and if left without resolve, would dig deeper into their wound and eventually hit the heart of the relationship causing a fatal blow. The relationship would die and both people, if they really cared for each other would be left nursing the wounds of loss. The cycle is then perpetuated because in order to prevent those fatal wounds again, the natural thing to do would be to put defenses back up most importantly to protect their most vulnerable part, their hearts.
She reminded me of what I shared with her during those challenging days of learning to trust each other.
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