Cheer 1: When I tell her I’m sick she offers to bring me soup. Cheer 2: When she shows up, it’s ok that I’m in my threadbare pajamas and haven’t washed my hair. We sit on my dirty kitchen floor, in my messy apartment together. …
My body has a physical response to making phone calls. We’re talking racing heart, muscle tension, fight or flight mode – a tiger is about to eat you – that kind of response. My body also has a physical response to the shame that comes …
The thing with pain and beauty is that they both are real. They exist at the same time. One of ways that we can help our souls expand with suffering rather than shattering by suffering is to allow beauty to expand our souls as well. Going for walks and looking for flowers pulled me out of the pain and sadness that I was in for the ten minutes or an hour that I was out there.
One reason that I am still a Christian is that the Christian story is a story of beauty coming into our pain. Immanuel, God with us, entering into our pain and offering a glimpse of hope.
(Immanuel is also the name of the Lutheran Church in my neighborhood where I took a picture of this Dahlia).
This is an excerpt from the latest article I wrote published on The Salt Collective. I am so grateful for the eclectic community of writers that The Salt Collective pulls together.
Check it out here : http://thesaltcollective.org/head-injury-spent-lot-time-looking-flowers/
*If you love this Dahlia photo you can purchase cards of this image at www.DaleyBlooms.com
A few weeks ago, my sister treated me to tickets for the Dixie Chicks, at the Minnesota State Fair. I heard recently that the music we listen to when we are 19 and 20 is the music that resonates most deeply with our souls. “Goodbye …
