When our souls ache
A request for mutual aid for a member of our community & what it means to do life right (we listen, hear, respond).
Sometimes, I think - I must have asked for this. The hardness and trials and hurdles upon hurdles. I must have, somehow and in some way. Some faiths, spiritual paths believe we do ask from them. For them, the challenges we overcome are chosen for us and from us so that we might grow, evolve, change.
I can’t quite wrap my soul around that. Who would choose years upon years of soul ache, beloved? Yet also, what would I do without the soul ache? What would Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad have done without their soul ache?
Soul ache conspires within our cells the need for something to change… the desire to sacrifice… the willingness to lay down our own comforts. And this, too, is necessary.
I write about what makes my soul ache, often. In fact, I could say that I only write about what makes my soul ache. From chronic pain to human rights and local and global inequities to disability parenting and climate change… and more. A lot makes my soul ache. Writing soothes some of it. The rest of what takes the edge off? It comes from action. Feet or wheels on the ground. Hands held and bodies hugged.
Some days, I have the very real opportunity for this. My child is at home recovering from an allergic reaction, and so I’m holding her. Tending to her grief. She feels the things we feel tenfold.
Today, I also have the opportunity to ask for mutual aid for a dear friend of mine.
A. is a member of the chronic illness community and is on her way to take in two family members aged 11 & 14. Many of us within the CI community do not have extra income; yet, can be excellent caregivers. If you feel inclined to share your earthly treasures with A., I will be collecting funds via venmo to send them over as they come in. You can find my venmo here: @jennifer-magnano. I can promise you that your love and prayers are equally as valuable here. So please send those up for these girls and A., too.
I will end my words here as I continue to work behind the scenes for my family and hers, today…
Your listening matters.
Listening is what unites us. All of us, friend.
If we cannot give, we pray. And we can only pray if we have listened… heard. Gene Knudsen Hoffman (Quaker, Writer/Poet and Peace Activist) once said,
“An enemy is one whose story we have not heard.”
With these words, my hope in hardship this Lent continues to evolve. That in circumstances beyond our fragile, human desires we might listen and lend hearts and hands. Because that soul ache you’re feeling? It’s quite possible that it is your cells crying out…
“Do something.”
On your knees, on the keys, in the world.
Do you agree?
Squeezes,
J. 🌻 @thebarefootpreacher
Feel free to share this When Our Souls Ache contemplation with a friend, precious soul. It might just change a life.
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