There is strength in weakness

There is strength in weakness. We have to find strength in our weaknesses, in being weak, in breaking, in allowing our being to collapse when it can no longer hold us up. This body, this mind, this spirit - all one - is vulnerable, fragile, prone to illness, prone to break. Before we get back up and do our warrior cry and begin healing, let's rest a moment on the ground, broken. Let’s mourn our wounds and our pain, let’s feel every thread of sorrow. Let us give this kindness to ourselves; let us give it to others who we witness in pain. Let us allow them to feel it, if even for a minute, before we try to “fix it”, “make it better”, “find a solution” -- help.
Being witness is enough.
Being patient and willing and kind is enough.
Allowing pain to be all there is in this moment and breathe into it rather than away is extraordinarily brave.
And of course - easier in theory than practice, as always. Because of course, we want to be all good, all healthy, all in balance. But we can only be in balance for one breath, and then we breathe out and suddenly we are in need of oxygen again, constantly in flux inside the coral reefs of our bodies.
Which is to say that a perfect healthy body doesn’t exist. Which is to say also that we are all dying.
And there is so much joy to find in that, knowing we don’t have to hold on forever. And the moment we let go of the need to be strong, we come back home to this moment and get struck by the amount of beauty we encounter there.

December 2019