I’ve recently been dipping into a fabulous book of poetry, ‘Let Me Be The Kind Who Weeps’, by Jon Swales, leader of the Lighthouse community in Leeds. The poetry is real, gritty, true; honestly charting the reality of ministry to those who are battered and bruised by life and have largely lost all hope of God ever caring about them.
Life’s tough. And it’s always healthy to cry. Tears are a natural release of tensions held within our body, sometimes tucked away there for years.
Some words of a song hit me deeply yesterday and I instantly felt tears rising in me. They were sad, they were beautiful, they were unexpected. But they were part of my ongoing, never ending, healing journey. Deep grief about things long past has been pouring itself out through me as I’ve begun to settle into rest and quiet. Perhaps because it now can, as I begin a sabbatical and give my mind space from its usual noise.
It’s easy to be frustrated by this, angry even. It’s tempting to fight the feelings; to suppress them or distract myself from them. And of course that’s what often happens in the busyness of our ordinary days.
We all do it. You too. But I’m learning to practice what I write about in Healing Life's Wounds. I’m learning to let the tears, and all the associated physical sensations that power through my body, simply ‘be’. I’m learning to welcome them rather than subdue them; to fully observe them; to be gentle with them and channel love into them. And though that’s not an easy process, it’s healing. And each time I manage it, a few more cells in my body return into healthy balance.
'Holding my emotions in awareness and love' feels counterintuitive, because our instincts are always to rapidly get rid of the pain. But it helps so much.
In the book I use an acronym to help you remember this: H.E.A.L.
It’s a process that helps restore calm when you’re experiencing strong feelings.
Why not try it?
Or better still, buy the book and work through it.
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