Dear All,
Despite it being June – a month that usually seems to be marked by happiness, contentment, joy – the struggles of life don’t disappear but because it is June perhaps they are overlooked. This week’s attachments include some reflections on self-care when disappointments, sadnesses inevitably come our way. All of these are by Joyce Rupp for whom it is a concern that we care for ourselves in order to be able to care for others. There are also some summertime reflections by Angela Abrahams. We hope you enjoy them.
The blessing this week is an Irish blessing from Sacred Weave.
With love
Embracing our Pain
Joyce Rupp
Avoidance of suffering is obvious in those who find it nearly impossible to be with others in their times of great hurt: not visiting those who are sick, avoiding those who are bereaved, never speaking to another person about his or her illness, relationship struggle, depression or any other painful situation.
The avoidance is much more subtle when it is our own huge gap of pain that we need to encounter. We can easily make excuses for not taking the time to pray in deeper ways because we fear awareness of how we truly think or feel. We can rationalise that we are so busy tending to someone else’s distress that we have no time for our own. We can tell ourselves that it is silly or stupid to feel as we do. We can hide behind shame or blame, anger or hostility, insisting that what we suffer is someone else’s problem & not our own. We can deny our addictions or weaknesses. We can let our fears loom so large that we succumb to doing nothing at all about what needs to be faced in our own time of suffering. By avoiding what is hurtful in our life, we cast aside a source of personal transformation.
May you rest your heartache
in the compassionate arms of the Holy One
and find comfort from that Enduring Love.
May you trust the hidden part of you
where your resilience resides
and remember your inner strength.
May you be gentle & compassionate
with yourself by caring well
for your body, mind & spirit.
May you recognise when it is time to let go
and move on, doing so when the struggle has faded,
and you are ready to allow the past be at rest.
Joyce Rupp
Butterfly
As I lay there slowly awakening
the image of newly hatched butterflies
Came to me – how they
hang
there
and wait
as the blood fills out
their fresh wings.
This morning I was the butterfly
allowing my sleepy self
to rest, to wait, to fill with life
to ready my wings to fly again.
Joyce Rupp
Summertime
The birdsong drifts as well as any summertime pollen. It comes as magical as any flute, as improvised as the deep south jazz, and as soulful as love’s kiss. In that moment I am present, feet still and heart open.
Summer comes in her own time, drifting in on a spring wind, wakening with the kind of warmth that flows to the core. Through the windows she sends light, spreading rainbows on cream walls. We can become enchanted by a patch of blue and violet that slowly stretches out to show the gold and blushed orange. Then there comes a sound that has been absent for the cooler months, the steady buzz of young bees, ready to seek blooms just as pretty as they. I wonder how they’ll fare when summer rests saving energy for her next encore, perhaps they will too.
The flowers are a new masterpiece each day, changing the frameless scenery, gazing upward at the ever-present sky; they are the warmth of the land that give thanks to the warmth of the summer sun. They are the rainbow that arises from earth and water, yet can be nothing without those golden rays. Each day of these playful months will come in moments, the gift of the present, lived in barefoot dances, wind-tousled hair, laughter and song… the layers of winter left in some forgotten corner.
Angela Abraham