Come Closer
By Lisa McCrohan
What if one day
you let the sadness,
the grief stuck under your ribs,
the regret lodged in your throat,
the shame still folding down
the corners of those precious lips
to come closer
to not push them away
or angrily shake your finger
scolding them
for their persistent presence
and instead chose to say,
“For so long I have tried to avoid you,
ignore you, medicate you,
keep my distance from you.
I didn’t want to be associated with you.
But today,
today I am tired.
I am tired of the effort it takes.
Today,
please,
come closer.
Let me breathe, sit, cry, moan,
dance and hold you.
My precious friends, yes,
I call you friends.
Because I see
there is no other way to wholeness.
There is no other practice or strategy to try.
Just this.
Arms vulnerably outstretched
heart bursting, beating wildly
wanting now to only draw you closer
into my arms, my chest,
and ever so tenderly
let you weep,
let you fold into me
like a babe in his mother’s arms
my hand caressing you
my sweet whispers soothing you
until our tears –
the stars –
begin to shine in the moonlit night
turning into jewels
that become our offering to the Divine
who has been waiting for so long now
to hold us…”
What if today is that day?
Lisa A. McCrohan, MA, LCSW-C, SEP
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We have the very medicine we need to heal. It’s within us. It’s our presence. It’s remembering that we want union, we want integration. Our cells want it, our spirits want it. Yet we have hurtful experiences and we often fragment ourselves. We push aside those parts of ourselves that have been labeled as “ugly” or “unwanted.” We “carry on” in the hustle and bustle of our lives, often getting swept up by the demands of daily living (daily “doing”). But when we pause, when we begin to draw closer those parts of ourselves that we deem “unwanted,” with mindful attention, with radical gentleness, and allow them space to show us what our bodies and spirits need to “do” to remember our wholeness…healing takes place.
So what if today is that day when you allow one little part of yourself that you’ve pushed away for so long now to actually come closer? To draw that part of you into your arms, welcoming it, allowing spaciousness and radical gentleness to soothe, to heal, to be an offering to the Divine who has so been waiting to hold us?
This is a radical practice. Our “go go go” culture would love to keep us “going” and “doing” and “searching” and addressing only the symptoms. It is radical to pause, to practice gentleness, to breathe into spaciousness. Yet, this is the very medicine that reminds us of our wholeness.
Blessings,
