Help comes in many forms.
Often it comes from beloved family and friends and the other than human world.
We can also call on the assistance of forces unseen but deeply felt in our hearts and bodies such as God,
Angels,
Or a higher power.
Regardless it seems to be easier to access when we ask with earnestness and humility.
For me,
It usually takes my willingness to let go of my desire to have everything wrapped in a tidy package,
I.
E.
Letting go of control,
To really open to the support I'm seeking.
It means truly surrendering myself to the greater care of something I can never quite name,
But which I feel pulsing through my entire being when I allow myself to get quiet enough.
Always gratitude helps me realign with the deep knowing that I'm supported and cared for in more ways than I can possibly imagine.
I hope this invocation offers you the same.
As you listen to the following words,
I invite you to breathe them in as if they're coming from deep inside your own heart.
And when there is a pause,
To take a slow,
Full breath,
Allowing them to sink in even more deeply.
This is an opportunity to take a break,
Even for a few moments,
And rest in the peace which lies deep within.
The gift of sadness,
An invocation for healing the wounds of childhood.
May we all remember the innocent child within each of us who,
Out of love and compassion for our elders and our world,
Gladly,
Willingly took their sadness to try and bear it as our own,
To ease the suffering of those from whom we took it.
And may each of us return all of the sadness we took,
That we were sometimes given from our parents,
Caregivers,
Family members,
Ancestors,
Teachers,
Clergy,
Strangers,
And culture as gifts wrapped lovingly with these precious hands and paper and string,
Notes written in pencil and crayon.
And may we know in the depths of our being that we cannot carry it for them,
But we can sit with them in their sadness and grief.
Let us know deep in our bones that bearing the burden of another's sadness is not actually helpful,
Nor is it a gift to them.
Rather,
We are depriving them of the very thing they need for their own healing,
Their own awakening.
May we,
In our remembrance of their stories of suffering,
Trauma,
And loss,
Honor them best by returning those stories incomplete because of our taking them to be held lovingly in their own hands,
Reclaimed and washed clean with their own tears,
Then released to God for whom no burden is too great,
To support them in carrying the grief and sadness of this world.
Let us trust that the ones whose sadness we have carried can receive this gift and open it with gratitude for the return of their wholeness and the reclamation of the parts of themselves they had thought either gone forever or from which they thought they needed to separate themselves.
May they know that only in calling back all the pains and sorrows to be loved and forgiven by them will they truly find the peace they seek.
May each of us have the courage to return and receive those precious gifts for the sake of the healing of the collective human heart.
May we all be blessed to receive such a gift from anyone who stands before us with the innocence of a child who took it so long ago saying,
Here you are,
It's yours,
I no longer need it,
But I think you do,
I love you.
And may we all have the grace to receive it with an embrace of gratitude,
Tears in our eyes,
And a knowing that this is one of the greatest gifts we could ever receive.
