Many nights of the week I participate in what is called Lectio Divina — a process whereby you read a piece of scripture several times, contemplate it, choose a word that stands out, talk about what the passage means to you and how you will apply it in the coming week. One of those weekly sessions, however, does this with poems rather than scripture.
In our session this week, we were reading the poem “Because” by Rosemary Wahtola Trommer. It is an incredible poem about the needs in this world, and how we as one person can’t solve all of those needs and how despite all of the challenges we must keep our hearts open. It is a poem that must be read.
As we were discussing the poem and the call to be courageous in love, in fact she says, “ridiculously courageous in love”, one woman in the group talked about how after a nurses’ shift had ended, the nurse stayed after shift and got down on the floor and played with the woman’s son who was playing with dinosaurs. She was so appreciative of the nurses’ gesture.
It’s not easy to keep our hearts open in this difficult world but Trommer encourages us to practice keeping our hearts open. One of my favorite lines in the poem is “So I practice opening my heart right here in this room and being gentle with my insufficiency.” Ahhhh…my insufficiency. I feel relief in that. I can let go. She says, “I practice walking down the street heart first.”
At the end of the lectio poem session when we were sharing prayers and gratitudes, one woman said, “Well, this week, I think we need to play with dinosaurs.”
Amen is an appropriate ending because the poem is like a prayer.
Be well…how many dinosaurs can you name? I can’t name too many….brontosaurus?
Feel free to comment in the comment section about how you practice keeping your heart open.
Love,
Blessed
In our session this week, we were reading the poem “Because” by Rosemary Wahtola Trommer. It is an incredible poem about the needs in this world, and how we as one person can’t solve all of those needs and how despite all of the challenges we must keep our hearts open. It is a poem that must be read.
As we were discussing the poem and the call to be courageous in love, in fact she says, “ridiculously courageous in love”, one woman in the group talked about how after a nurses’ shift had ended, the nurse stayed after shift and got down on the floor and played with the woman’s son who was playing with dinosaurs. She was so appreciative of the nurses’ gesture.
It’s not easy to keep our hearts open in this difficult world but Trommer encourages us to practice keeping our hearts open. One of my favorite lines in the poem is “So I practice opening my heart right here in this room and being gentle with my insufficiency.” Ahhhh…my insufficiency. I feel relief in that. I can let go. She says, “I practice walking down the street heart first.”
At the end of the lectio poem session when we were sharing prayers and gratitudes, one woman said, “Well, this week, I think we need to play with dinosaurs.”
Amen is an appropriate ending because the poem is like a prayer.
Be well…how many dinosaurs can you name? I can’t name too many….brontosaurus?
Feel free to comment in the comment section about how you practice keeping your heart open.
Love,
Blessed