I have a beautiful coffee-table book titled Finding Ourselves on Sacred Ground by Jan Phillips and Ruth Westreich. This book contains their photographs accompanied by prose and poetry to inspire. The other day I read this:
"Your spiritual practice is the space and place where you love yourself—honor, heal and collect yourself. It is where you lose and find yourself, where you hear the sound of intelligence knocking and open your arms to welcome her gifts.
"It is the communion table where yin and yang, light and dark, masculine and feminine, body and soul dissolve their borders and melt like chocolate into each others' arms.
"What use can you be to yourself or others when you fail to heal your open wounds, drink in the light, thresh and winnow the grist of your life?"
Phillips and Westreich have given us a lot upon which to reflect in those words, haven't they? There's an invitation to love self and to find healing for our wounds. These things are so important for, just as they said, "What use can you be to yourself or others" without that? As we know, wounded people wound others—if those wounds are not healed. I'm sure you have experienced that just as I have, both by being on the receiving end and also being the one who has wounded others.
Resolve to tend to your spiritual practice today.
Showing posts with label honor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label honor. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
Monday, May 25, 2015
Honoring those who serve
So today is Memorial Day. Does that just mean a day off work for you? A day to be with family or friends? A day for parades and picnics?
It's so easy to forget the real reason for some of our calendar holidays, isn't it? Unless you personally know someone who is serving or has served in the country's military, it's perhaps easy enough to forget that this is a day to remember—remember those who served and who died protecting us. It originally was known as Decoration Day and began after the Civil War to remember both the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in that war. Now it's a day to honor all who died while in military service anytime and anywhere.
It's a good time to stop and reflect on what that means, particularly to those families who have sustained such losses. I personally also like to think about those who serve in the military—and who have lived through wars but who are forever and irrevocably changed by that experience. Huge numbers return home but are never the same. More of them than we know carry deep scars and suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This has always been true; it's just that we didn't have a name for it until recent years. Even now, it's difficult for many who serve to admit to PTSD because it's perceived as weakness. But truly, who wouldn't be affected by experiencing things no human should have to face?
So, do take some time today to think about those who have died serving our country—and those who yet live but with scars, some that are visible but many that are not. When possible, take the time to thank those you know, too. Gratitude surely is an appropriate response.
How might we best honor them all? What do you do?
It's so easy to forget the real reason for some of our calendar holidays, isn't it? Unless you personally know someone who is serving or has served in the country's military, it's perhaps easy enough to forget that this is a day to remember—remember those who served and who died protecting us. It originally was known as Decoration Day and began after the Civil War to remember both the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in that war. Now it's a day to honor all who died while in military service anytime and anywhere.
It's a good time to stop and reflect on what that means, particularly to those families who have sustained such losses. I personally also like to think about those who serve in the military—and who have lived through wars but who are forever and irrevocably changed by that experience. Huge numbers return home but are never the same. More of them than we know carry deep scars and suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This has always been true; it's just that we didn't have a name for it until recent years. Even now, it's difficult for many who serve to admit to PTSD because it's perceived as weakness. But truly, who wouldn't be affected by experiencing things no human should have to face?
So, do take some time today to think about those who have died serving our country—and those who yet live but with scars, some that are visible but many that are not. When possible, take the time to thank those you know, too. Gratitude surely is an appropriate response.
How might we best honor them all? What do you do?
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