I am yearning for snow…fresh and untouched, a winter wonderland of stillness and peace that covers all the pain and grief of the past months.
What kind of space are you yearning for?
Winter light
Dare to love
“My grief says I dared to love, that I allowed another to enter the very core of my being and find a home in my heart. Grief is akin to praise; it is how the soul recounts the depth to which someone has touched our lives.” Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow
How has your soul been touched deeply?
Hope is the thing with feathers
“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –
And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –
I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me. Emily Dickinson
What form or shape does hope take for you?
Golden threads
There are things
We get through
That we grieve
Only later—
When some new loss
Pulls them to the surface
Of the deep well
In which they’ve
Been submerged.
And so today
Our grief for
The world as we’ve
Known it,
For plans laid down,
For possibilities
Now gone forever,
Is laced with
Golden threads
Of loss we had forgotten,
As if distant waves
Are lapping
On an unseen shore
In the dark of night. Judy Brown
What golden threads of loss are rising to the surface for you?
Beneath the storm
Let there be
an opening
into the quiet
that lies beneath
the chaos,
where you find the peace
you did not think
possible
and see what shimmers
within the storm.” Jan Richardson, The Cure For Sorrow
What do you discover beneath the chaos?
Compassion
“…going down into the deep pain of another is like jumping into a bottomless abyss – not knowing if or where one will land. To grasp another’s pain means letting go of our own safety limb and falling down to an unknown place. In this place we maybe won’t have the answers that will help alleviate the pain or explain it. We have to be willing to admit, then and there, down in the pit, that we too are helpless and weak and powerless. And who wants to do that, or be there?” Henri Nouwen
How are you called to presence with?
With the Eyes of the Heart 