The Body is Wise

A friend once told me, "The body is wise - not everything we process goes through our minds." I was reminded this week by a colleague friend that we are now entering the 100th week since the pandemic shut down began nearly two years ago. We are approaching a grief anniversary and the body is wise and not everything we have processed and are processing is going through our minds. Poet Amanda Gorman in her book, "Call Us What We Carry" offers a collection of poems that help with communal processing of this shared time in human history. She reflects in her poem, "At First":

When asking how others were faring,
We did not expect an honest or full response.
What words can answer how we're remaining alive?
We became paid professionals of pain,
Specialists in suffering,
Aces of the ache,
Masters of the moan.
March shuddered into a year,
Sloshing with millions of lonely,
An overcrowded solitude.
We pray there will never be such a
Precise & peopled hurt as this.

As you prepare to mark this two year time frame, I'd like to extend an invitation to participate in a series of reflections. This will be a place to share any rituals, prayers, poems, legacy projects, or reflections through our synod blog, The Wavelength. You can contact me jenn.pockat@ecsw.org with your ideas and interest in the conversation.

Rev. Jenn Pockat
Associate to the Bishop
Director for Communications and Community