Medicine, Madness and Miracles

Medicine Madness and Miracles

A Hymn of Renewal

 

What if we woke up today

And the old stories didn’t have their sting?

What if we didn’t resist what there is to do?

And set about our tasks, whether grand or mundane

As if we were serving the world through our tending

and our grieving.

What if we gave ourselves permission to love again,

really love, and  choose to move forward

releasing any guilt for how we have hidden ourselves

from life

Let us be honest with ourselves

if things have not turned out as we hoped for.

If our dreams feel dashed or doomed.

Let’s just say it.

Are there ties that need cutting?

Are there others that need re-tieing? Mending?

Let us mourn and lament, this is our right, our practice.

We who walk forward with broken hearts

light the way through the openings in our hearts

hollowed out places that shine with tears, sweat, blood

and glints of shimmering despair.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

When the time is right to step back into the light

and out of the valley of tears, we will know and step forward.

Even if our tears are not yet dry.

Slowly, surely we move toward hope again.

We are living in a broken hearted world.

Because some of us are hungry.

Some of us are hurting. Some damage is too far done.

Some have unspeakable loss.

Finding freedom comes from telling ourselves the truth

Finding freedom comes from admitting and releasing.

and after a lifetime of pain or pleasure.

Finding freedom comes after grieving.

Finding Freedom begins with a choice to move towards it

and lean into the sharp edges even when we are afraid.

And then step by step, story by story, cell by cell.

Freedom finds it’s way to us. And we to it.

Let us together pray for all beings.

This is our medicine, to know we are not alone.

When you mourn for abuse or loss you suffered or caused

think of all the others in the same place.

When you cry for the loss of a loved one

think of those who cry with you

When your heart is filled with anger

think of those, who angry too – rage with you.

When you are despairing – and don’t want to go on

think of those – who sit with you on the edge of life.

So as I stand here in my own life

Viewing the wreckage and the miracles

The neglect and the harvest

The dreams dashed and the dreams fulfilled

The lack of integrity and the profound commitment

I stand in awe and wonder at the

Side by sideness of all of it.

Joy does sit side by side with sorrow

In eachother’s light and darkness

Medicine and madness and miracles.

Strung between them is the human existence.

Only after all of this,

Am I moved to peace. To acceptance.

And ultimately

To hope. And finally, renewal.

Shiloh Sophia

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