The Irish poet Brendan Kennelly wrote, “Hell is the familiar all stripped of wonder.” Ceasing to marvel at the miracle of ordinary life is a joyless way of being. Yet, life is clearly not all roses and butterflies. Even ordinary life itself provides enough suffering with frequency and magnitude to drain the soul of inspiration.
Contemplating the joys of the world is obviously going to feel a lot different from contemplating its sorrows. I fear I’d prefer to become desensitized to the world’s social, environmental and political pain. Numbness seems quite rational. It seems like I could be more effective at this “being human” thing if I were numb to the heart-wrenching feeling of empathizing with all beings facing trauma, suffering or fear. If it’s a sense of futility or overwhelm, it’s very hard to hold, much less muster gratitude or empathy in the moment.
Meister Eckhart said, “If the only prayer you say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.”
How could “thank you” be enough for the middle-east? For the death of a loved one, or a derecho, or a global pandemic?
I can be thankful that I feel pain, because it helps me understand where I can help heal. Maybe gratitude is calling me into relationship with the suffering around me, rather than avoidance. Like suffering, gratitude serves to wake me up and calls me to acknowledge a deeper relationship with all that surrounds me. I have a relationship with joy, and I have a relationship in this with pain. Gratitude guides me to the next right action. How lucky I am to be able to look around me and to feel strongly! But what could I really do for any of these problems in the world?
Calling to mind the words of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: “Do not forget that the value and interest of life is not so much to do conspicuous things … as to do ordinary things with the perception of their enormous value.” However small the step, I keep moving forward. Not only through thoughts and prayers, but pursuing peace—this is a life well lived.
—Jessica Lien, Prairiewoods development coordinator
photo of Nancy Hoffman, FSPA, walking in the woods following the derecho, as photographed by Jenifer Hanson