Meeting so Much Pain with so Much Heart

When tragedy strikes
the heart constricts
sheltering itself from the blows of the world

We can turn on our minds
and turn on our mouths
raising fists
raising ideas
or clucking our dismay

Popular culture loves and supports this
24 hour news propagates it
our neighbors, loved ones and co-workers regurgitate it
​so it is understandably hard to not listen

But there is an invitation
by the little heart that closed
to go inside to meet it
to listen to its small and frightened voice

All it takes is stillness
all it takes is a willingness to shed tears
for not just this tragedy
but for all the tragedies ever

that's all

It is worth it
for what also lives here
is an authentic hope
that so simply knows the way forward
the mind searches so frantically for

It is a place of compassion
so deep, no bomb could touch it,
it has already been bombed
no genocide can mar it,
it has already been marred

It is the part of you
who knows all of human history
the horror and the sweetness of
who we really are

And it believe in the sweetness
it is prepared to go to the heights
and the depths
for that sweetness

Inexplicably in love with love

There is a caveat
one should know:
This isn't for the feint of heart
for it encourages a kind of rawness.
You will feel
all there is to feel

and it will rub

But if you consider these growing pains
if you dedicate yourself
to listening to and loving
that little heart of yours,
its resilience will grow

and grow

Until it is so much heart
that it no longer needs to close
in the face of so much pain,
it can stand and weep
offering an authentic hand of kindness
to the world

By Summer Starr
November 19, 2015 - Dedicated to the deaths in Paris, both the victims and the perpetrators. May all rest in peace...including the survivors near and far.