Saying For Today: In any situation, our intent is, first and foremost, simply to be with the other.
A Tender Presence
Today's Saying: We really don't want people to be attracted to us because of our bodies but because of what there is about us that is changeless and timeless. We want people to understand us and love us because they truly see us. They cannot do this while relating to us only as a body. We want to be aware, and we want others to be aware, of the golden glow from within and not merely the glitter of surface appearances.
*Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D. Teach Only Love.
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So appreciative she is that we - my colleague and I, her chaplain - are here. She tells us of her sense of loneliness, being unloved, and the pain of memories from her past. I hold her hand. I listen, offering few words. Before leaving, I bend down, and we embrace. She is sacred, her story of pain and bliss holy, and she does not need fixing. She needs to be loved. And we hear that in her voice as we prepare to leave, a voice that speaks the gratitude that someone has come, someone cares enough to be here. No, she does not need to be fixed, but seen, truly seen, heard, truly heard, and kindly touched. And in that, spirit and spirit have met, and Love has happened again. Love does that, you know?
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Possibly, one of the greatest challenges we face is learning not to try to fix persons. Compassion is first about being with. In gently abiding together, change may happen in the other, as well as in you, but not for an intent to cause it. We may, however, be an agent of change by being a presence of peace. In any situation, our intent is, first and foremost, simply to be with the other. In this being with, you allow yourself to see the other as more than a body. The body is only the outer layer of an unspeakable spirit. The Light, thereby, shares with the Light, for the Light within one is the Light within the other. This Light is Love. Love is the healer.
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*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2021
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse. The book is a collection of poems based on wisdom traditions, predominantly Christian, Buddhist, and Sufi, with extensive notes on the poetry's teachings and imagery.
