Before I begin this post, remember friends, although we are physically distanced, you are always in my heart. I am only an email or a call away. Every unit clerk has my number, and I pray about all of you, every day.
On to "All the Feels"
When I drive into San Antonio these days (only rarely and for essential purposes only,) and see the deserted highways and streets, the opening of Lamentations, a book in the Hebrew scriptures comes to mind:
“How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations! She who was queen among the provinces has now become a slave.” – Lamentations 1:1
Lamentations is an old-fashioned word, currently defined by doctonary.com as “The passionate expression of grief or sorrow; weeping.”
But when we think of the book of Lamentations, with its ups and downs it makes me think of the current slang term, “all the feels.” My understanding is that phrase means experiencing a full range of emotions.
All the lamenting in Lamentations is ascribed to Jeremiah. In the beginning it Jeremiah grieves over the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. He also moves through anger, contrition, and ultimately a sense of trust in God. All the feels, yes?
Holy writings from across all time, and in many faith traditions, have their own set of lamentations. The Buddha became enlightened as a result of lamenting the plight of the poor and meditating on that. Mary grieved the loss of her son at the foot of the cross, the disciples felt lost and forlorn without Him.
Could “all the feels” be a spiritual practice? There is no doubt to my mind. It must be the first step I would think on any sort of spiritual journey.
In our current situation of global pandemic, we have our own set of lamentations, particularly as health care workers.
The image above this post says it all, does it not? These images were put together by someone, I wish I knew who to credit, and was posted on Facebook. Images on whiteboard (how appropriate, we seem to put everything on whiteboard in the hospital these days) about “all the feels” for healthcare providers in a time of COVID 19.
The writer of the caption in Facebook where I found this image invited healthcare workers to name those feelings instead of letting a nebulous feeling of unease have power over them. In naming the feelings, and seeing where they come from, we regain some of our power back. We are not frozen or blocked by our emotions.
Acknowledging all the feelings we experience in a time of upheaval is a type of work rooted in love. We do go low in the depths of despair. Say the words, name the feelings! All the Feelings. In doing so, they lose some of their hold on us. Doing so will, in its time, act as a living, breathing Easter experience for us. Life, and our faith, arisen, and reordered.
We will find a way to get up and engage fully in a new life.
We’ll do it all over and over again, if we need to.
I thank you for reading and be blessed this day.
Comments