Nourish Life
There is much in our world and in our personal lives that is not how it “should be.”
When we see it
Touch it
Feel it
Work with it
Stand against it
We ache.
Injustice, violence, illness, and losses of all sorts are present every day. And the honest response to these experiences that batter us is that we ache.
Setting aside the ways that we might be prone to check out and numb in an effort to escape, when we honestly live with and take in so much pain and suffering sometimes we freeze. We get stuck.
Like walking into the thick muddy bank of a stream that sucks the boot right off your foot, wading into the ache can suck us in, causing us to lose our balance and become mired.
An honest approach to living in the broken world that we do in fact inhabit demands that we intentionally find was to nourish ourselves.
Nourishing life does not mean avoiding the mucky places, or deceiving ourselves pretending horrendous realities aren’t there or that our presence and work within them aren’t called for.
Nourishing life can be done in the smallest of moments.
A pause.
One breath.
A few minutes to kneel and touch the ground.
A simple walk.
Enjoying the company of a happy friend
Or the laughter of a child.
Giving ourselves permission to pause and practice touching beauty is crucial. As Thich Nhat Hanh says “When you get lost in your suffering, it [pausing] can rescue you and put you in touch with the positive elements of life.”
Nourishing life in simple ways is essential if we are to do the work that is ours to do in this beautiful broken world.
Today, my friends, may we give ourselves permission to pause and tend the spark in our souls and be refreshed.
