We learn early to hide our pain and to tuck it somewhere deep and hope time will do the healing for us. But the body remembers. It waits patiently for us to turn toward it, not with judgment, but with gentleness. The Softening speaks to that moment of courage: when we finally touch what hurts, and in doing so, discover that pain isn’t a punishment to be endured, but a part of us longing to be seen.
The Softening
We hide our pain,
tuck it into a corner of the body.
It cries for attention.
We ignore it,
hush it with distraction or addiction.
One day, with a trembling hand,
we reach toward it.
It softens,
feels seen,
and crumbles into ease.
When we step into pain,
give it space to speak,
lean into it,
note it,
without judging.
Our heart opens
and holds us,
like a mother holds her child:
not to fix,
but to soothe.
The heaviness sinks into the earth.
From this ground,
a seed of imperfection
absorbs love
and breaks open,
slowly growing
into all that we are
a flower
opening to light.
What an insightful poem of personal growth and overcoming. I love that it concludes with softness and healing - Jae
ReplyDeleteWithout judging. That is a fine skill to cultivate, not easy though.
ReplyDeleteHow very wise! And beautifully said.
ReplyDeleteIn this day and age of coddling and helicopter parents I'm a firm believer in learning how to deal with pain, physical, mental, real or imagined. Great write 👏
ReplyDeleteTo move forward in life without judging is a supremely difficult task.
ReplyDeleteEspecially love those last two lines. We tuck away and then forget where or why.
ReplyDeleteI'm doing rehab right now, captive for another week I'm afraid. And another symptom not understood. This time they didn't give up and call it "aging" like they did for my amenia and Kidney failure stage 3a. I can't complain, doctors and modern medicine have kept me alive for 92 years now.
ReplyDeleteThe prescription to deal with pain. Pain has to be recognised in order to recover. A deep and authentic medication.
ReplyDeleteSo true that our pains, no matter the kind, cry for attention when we try to hide them away. They want us to listen to them.
ReplyDeleteOh, how I feel these words, so very true
ReplyDeletenot to fix, but to soothe. Comfort and acceptance. So important.
ReplyDeleteAcknowledging, working through, overcoming .... I have tried in earnest to follow this mantra forever. Not always easy ..... love your poem.
ReplyDeletePrachtig gedicht, het ontroert me. Voor het 'Zonder te oordelen.'
ReplyDeleteHet proces begint met accepteren; het kunnen loslaten is een ander verhaal. Ik luister graag naar Fix You van Coldplay.
loved the poem... its only after my second read, I started to feel the dept of it
ReplyDelete...Marja, softening is what is needed today, society seems to have hardened.
ReplyDeleteA much more poetic way of saying.....grin and bear it.
ReplyDeleteThis is beautiful, Marja!
ReplyDelete"When we step into pain,
ReplyDeletegive it space to speak,
lean into it,
note it,
without judging."
Beautiful, meaningful poem, Marja!
This is literally true of lingering pain from an old injury. Muscles stiffen up to relieve the pain from the injury. Sometimes they stay stiff and become the kind of pain I've done specialized study in "erasing." Every massage therapist has worked a few "miracles"--usually it's the impaired more than the totally blind or deaf who can see or hear after treatment--and also come to a few cases where treatment had to be done in just the right time and sequence in order to work. You can feel the stiff muscle through the skin, and feel how it softens. If it softens up too soon, though, it may stiffen again overnight. Then the patient goes in search of a different massage therapist. The muscle will soften, eventually, after the other muscles it's trying to protect have softened.
ReplyDelete