For just over a year I have worked at a school for children with social, emotional and mental health issues. Some of the children I work with live in a children's home on site and have experienced trauma and abuse. These children often have difficult days where they are really struggling emotionally and spiritually. On one such day, I was with a particular boy who I knew had suffered the worst kind of abuse and I felt totally at a loss to help him as I witnessed his deep depression and self-hatred. It was like he was sitting at the bottom of a pit in the dark and knowing what I did, I could totally understand why he was there. I wished I could help him climb out but all I could do was sit with him in the dark and bear witness to his pain, anything else would have felt contrived and forced. I felt heavy with sadness for him in the evening and I wrote this piece which, a year later I feel to share. My hope is that it may connect with some of you as we journey through this precious yet sometimes deeply painful life together.
Autumn breeze
As the Autumn breeze swirls the dry, crumpled leaves in frenzied spirals, so are some human souls.
As you watch, don't weep, for their journey is not your own.
Every once in a while perhaps the wind will slow and a leaf will rest near you.
Then you can take it up, examine it in the light and tell it how beautiful it is, how fleeting,
how wonderfully the light falls through the gaps and cracks in its papery skin.
You cannot run after the frenzied leaf and hope to catch it,
you can only hope that in the pause before the next great blow,
somehow as grace aligns you find this beauty and speak to it truly, speak to it tenderly.
All things die, decompose and return to life again.
Every act makes a difference in this life or the next,
nothing is meaningless.
Allow the wind to guide you today.
