Sometimes the right words show up at just the right time. This is what showed up this morning:
Suffering makes an instrument of each of us, so that standing naked, holes and all, the unseen vitalities can be heard through our simplified lives.
…In every space opened when what we want gets away, a deeper place is cleared in which the mysteries can sing. If we can only survive that pain of being emptied, we might yet know the joy of being sung through. Strangely and beautifully, each soul is a living flute being carved by life on Earth to sound deeper and deeper song.
– Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening
Imagine that. These deep gashes in my soul from broken relationships, a son who died before he was born, a father who died before I was ready to let him go, a mom fighting cancer, a husband whose demons have nearly killed him twice, a rape before I knew what sexual intimacy was… these are all holes that make the instrument that is me sound beautiful and sweet.
With time and healing, they let me sing a deep, rich song that may be just the soothing ointment needed for someone else’s fresh wounds.
Often we get caught up in identifying our strengths and our giftedness and we spend all our time trying to figure out how those things can uniquely impact the world.
We forget that it may very well be our pain that will let us sing the sweetest songs and soothe the greatest hurts.