this morning I was reading through Lent and Easter: Wisdom From Henri Nouwen. It is a great collection of Nouwen quotes for reading during Lent and Easter that I picked up a couple of years ago. I was struck again by this quote, not because I myself am in a place of struggle and pain but because so many around me are – from those in Haiti who are now inundated with floods in the aftermath of the earthquake, to friends who have lost jobs and others who are being treated for cancer:
Your pain is deep, and it won’t just go away… Your call is to bring that pain home. As long as your wounded part remains foreign to your adult self, your pain will injure you as well as others. Yes, you have to incorporate your pain into your self.
This is what Jesus means when he asks you to take up your cross. He encourages you to recognize and embrace your unique suffering and to trust that your way to salvation lies therein. taking up your cross means, first of all, befriending your wounds and letting them reveal to you your own truth. (p24)
Reading this passage reminded me of a pebble I picked up on the beach shortly after the death of Tom’s son Clint. I call it my stone of remembrance. It is an interesting stone in which light and dark coloured minerals intertwine to form an intricate and intriguing pattern.
This may sound a little strange I know but I have found it helpful to pick up that stone whenever I am in a struggling place and meditate on its pattern. All of life is a pattern of dark and light intertwined. Today it struck me that it is the dark streaks that give the stone its strength. In fact the light rock is soft and crumbly and without the dark streaks it would slowly disappear. How like our lives where the hard dark places strengthen and give shape and form to the soft and vulnerable places of light and laughter. In befriending our pain and our wounds we really do find truth and life. Without our doubts and our pains, our lives would have no depth or endurance.
Filed under: Christianity, Lent, life, Pain & tragedy, Prayer, Prayer and inspiration, Rhythms of life, spiritual practices, spirituality Tagged: | Henri Nouwen, Lent, Lent reflection, pain
This really speaks to me today, Christine. I love Henri Nouwen. Going to have to find this book.
Laura, Its a great book – one I use repeatedly during Lent.
Wonderful quote (and post) Christine…thank-you for your sharing. I, too, am a big Nouwen fan. Being the dad of a special needs child it warms my heart to know people like him who have and are now working with this special population. His writings on his work at L’Arche are more than inspirational.
Love this post. I was told once by my Spiritual Director to, instead of anethsitizing my pain, to just sit in it for a while and get to know it. She said the pain was a sign I had work to do. And your eloquent description of the light and dark in your remembrance stone brings to mind the Jungian concept of The Shadow (the darker parts of the Self) and the need for each of us to become acquainted and learn to love that darker Self in order to be whole. Light and dark; yin and yang. What complex Beings we are.
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Thanks for the Nouwen quote. Very insightful. I’m going to see if I can get the book on Kindle. You lead me back to Nouwen. Thanks. You Gardening seminar sounds so interesting. Could you recommend any written resources distance will not allow me to attend. I plowed my garden at my Father’s down in Louisiana and now I am about to plow the one here at my house in Mississippi. My bunnies have done a great job supply the nitrogen!
Milton,
Nouwen is certainly one that I come back to time and again. Sorry that we are too far away for you to attend the garden seminar – maybe we should try to do one in Louisiana next year. Have you seen the ebook that i wrote on spirituality and gardening (To Garden With God). There is a section at the back with resources on organic gardening as well as spirituality and garden
Blessings
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