Hi, friends. I hope you and your loved ones are staying well during this pandemic.
I know that the state of our world right now has taken a mental toll on many of us in different ways. Social distancing from friends and loved ones has made many people feel more isolated than ever.
I wanted to share some poems with you that you may also want to share with a friend, because we may be isolated and separated physically right now, but we are never alone in the way we are feeling.
These feelings might make it easier to isolate yourself even further from friends and family, but please know that your mental health matters, and you matter. Let’s help each other through this season. Let’s sit with each other in the pain and not skip past the messy truths we are living in. Then, let’s hope together, and let’s heal together.
If you’re having a hard time right now, my heart is with you, and I am so sorry. I hope that these poems might help remind you, even though it feels like it now more than ever, you’re not alone.
We’re here together. I hope these poems help encourage you today as they did for me.
April Green
hold onto faith
no matter how heavy it can
sometimes feel in your arms;
hold onto it.
because faith is like making a
promise to yourself:
things will get better soon.
I love this piece because it is a reminder that even though our current realities can feel very heavy and faith feels almost impossible to carry with us through the day, it’s faith that will move us through the pain of today into the promise and hope of tomorrow. I know my heart needed this reminder.
Morgan Harper Nichols
you do not have
to have answers
before you can
exhale.
Our plans have all been derailed in a big way. We are scrambling for normalcy, bending over backward to maintain productivity. We are leaning on to-do lists and seeking out new normals with answers for our next steps, all the while holding our breath and settling into fear. But, there is so much freedom in surrender. We don’t have all the answers yet, but we can have faith that we can walk through the uncertainty anyway. Breathe. Exhale. Release.
Grant Chemidlin
Today, I told the sun:
Now I know what it’s like
to be swallowed by darkness
night after night.
Well good, she replied,
with a shimmering grin,
then you know what it’s like
to keep rising again.
This piece spoke to my heart in a big way. When we are sitting in darkness, that tends to be all that we can see and imagine. However, just like day and night are part of our time here, so is rising after hardship. If you need to experience the darkness for a while, that’s okay. Find loved ones who can sit with you there. But, in time, just like the sunrise, your soul will rise too.
John Mark Green
Love can find you…
even in the darkest of places.
This piece was a perfect complement to the previous poem. It’s so important to hold onto hope for a sunrise, but sometimes we might feel trapped in the darkness. We aren’t unlovable when we are there. We are not lost. Kindness, hope, a friend when you need them most…all of these things can navigate the darkness. You’re never incapable of being found. So, feel what you need to feel. But, know that a rescue is possible even in your darkest days.
