Facing pain

Let us feel no shame

For experiencing pain

Let us be loving and compassionate

To all that hurts

Deep inside our soul

Know that feelings do not lie

And that it is okay to ache

As your heart breaks over so many things

You endured

There is a doorway into healing

And it opens with receptivity to the grieving

Knowing losses happened

And also so many difficult things

We really never had control

Or power over

It is not a weakness

To face and own our struggles

It is not a failure to embrace

Our pain

There is no shame in suffering grief

Regret

Failure and disappointment

The deeper question is

How will you meet

And accept these essential

Maturing experiences?

For surely Christ taught us this

That the cross of earthly experience is often

So very heavy

We fall many times

But let us remain open

Both to the trials

And to the bearing with

Our ‘givens’

Let us never turn away

Or abandon

Our own soul

Or the soul of any human sister or brother

Held captive within

Feelings of

Sorrow

Pain

Fear

Failure

Or shame

For only by accepting them

As necessary experiences on the path of healing

Will we find the way to open

To the truth

That all were just at heart

Fundamental and completely natural

Human experiences