What if today,
We found ourselves centered in the midst of our own Being?
Could we stroke the hair
Without owning the despair
Of the one we love?
Could we somehow find the balance,
To love without owning?
Without owning the one we love?
Without owning their demons they play with in the night?
Without owning the lies they tell themselves in the moments of their despair?
It’s a challenge, no doubt.
The Savior in me wants to die on the cross for you,
To save you from your sins, to cast the devils the beguiles you into the Sea’s abyss.
And banish your tears,
Exile them well beyond the fabled gates of heaven.
But the lover in me knows there is a much harder choice.
I must let you go to wallow in your misery,
Allow you to wade in that ocean of darkened truth,
I will not let you drown, no….I will die to save you then,
But no person alive has ever become the strongest swimmer they can be
From the security of a lifeboat, of the safety of a sandy beach.
We must all come close to drowning to know the beauty of this life,
The wonders of our own strength,
The truth of who we are indeed.
Knowing love will not allow us to sink beneath the surface.
If we drown, it will be of our own choosing.
We can always push the outstretched hand of love away,
One last breath before we sink, exhaled in the denial of one truth,
For the finality of another.
We are all blessed creators, even in our moments of uncertainty.
For it is we who create even the darkest moments we have wallowed in.
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I have several scars, one of which resides within my left eyebrow. It was the result of a sucker punch, but that’s a story for another day. I remember when I was in the emergency room getting stitched up, the doctor doing the stitching said these poignant words to me.
“It may start to itch as it heals. Don’t scratch it, or it will never heal. Let the healing process do its thing.”
As I’ve gotten older, and a bit wiser, I’ve realized that piece of advice is a great metaphor for all of the wounds, both emotional and physical, I have that needed to be healed. The more attention I gave them, the more I scratched them when they itched, the less likely they were to heal and the more likely they were to get infected. If I could only master leaving them to the natural process of healing they would heal fantastically without any intentional effort of my mind or ego. In fact, the only mindful intention I would give them was in the mastery of not picking at them. Believe me, that isn’t always easy.
That does not mean that we should ignore our wounds. We do, after all, need to get stitches from time to time. There is a time, though, when we need to let go of the focus we place on our wounds and allow the natural process of healing to take place. Sometimes, we need to get the hell out of the way, and focus on other parts of life, if we ever want to be truly healed.
That is a great reminder for me today, and a pretty awesome intention to set as I begin my morning.