Ok, so I’m revealing my age again as I have been reciting this song by the Bee Gees a lot lately.  I realize the lyrics may not be entirely inclusive, but the song was written in a much earlier time before we became aware, considerate and sensitive of the need for inclusivity.

Below is s a link to this song which reflects the age old questions about life.

As I reflected on the world in which we live, on the conversations I’ve had in recent days with people struggling with life, I heard the stress and anxiety.  As I spoke with our personnel in Nicaragua and heard the “why again” questions of our Nicaraguan brothers and sisters, I felt and heard the deep sadness and fear echoed time and time again.  Each of their voices changed to a more hopeful tone, when I said I was calling on behalf of all us who support the Mission of Hope.  There is no easy way around loss, pain, fear, grief.  Sadly but truly, we have to walk through those dark moments, but a broken heart HURTS!  We all know how it feels.  Losing a loved one through death, or even keeping vigil with a loved one who is slowly dying from Parkinsons, ALS, dimensia or alzheimers, struggling with a broken relationship, living in fear of one’s life, feeling helpless as we watch children be victimized by war, poverty, separation or abuse, watching a child or loved one unable to escape the snares of addiction, are just some examples of the painful aspects of the human condition.

We truly feel we can’t breathe from the pain that is so intense that the only appropriate response is a primal cry of anguish.  Sometimes, we feel like our heart has truly been broken open and shattered into a thousand pieces.  Sometimes we busy ourselves so as to avoid dealing with the new reality.  A friend recently sent me a quote from Rumi….”You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens”.  I confess that my original reaction to this quote is ENOUGH…I don’t want my heart broken open any more.

We also know that each person has to walk that journey of grief and loss at their own pace and in their own way.  I don’t have any great answers, but I want to believe that at some point, we come out on the other side.  I liken this to an experience I had in Nicaragua several years ago, when I was with one of our local women, walking from home to home, from shelter to shelter, from sticks and plastic bag homes to one room shacks- ALL IN THE DARK OF NIGHT!  I found myself stumbling, reaching out and fearing that I would fall and never stop falling.  I eventually turned to this woman and asked her, “How do you see in the dark?”  It wasn’t meant to be some sort of spiritual question, it was really more a question of practicality and reality.  But it was her answer that stopped me right in my tracks…because she whispered in my ear, “You must learn to see God in the darkness”.

Perhaps the Bee Gees song, perhaps the burning questions of loss, grief, the imperfection of the human condition, is a summation of that statement:  “How can you mend a broken heart, how can you stop the sun from shining”………….how do you learn to see God in the darkness?

Just last weekend, I was having this conversation with one of my dear friends, i.e., and she asked me, “How do you not lose hope?  I told her that much of the time, I focus on the faces of the children…on the faces of those in need.  It is what keeps me from filling up with helplessness and hopelessness and becoming paralyzed with inaction.  As long as there is life, there is hope.

These days as I hear the anxiety and concern in the voices of our friends in Nica, as I watch the daily news, as I worry about family and friends, I try to remind myself that God has promised each of us “a future full of hope” (Jeremiah)- and I repeat and repeat and repeat that mantra.  That may be one way to see God in the darkness.  Thomas Merton once said, “Speak words of hope.  Be human in this most inhuman of ages”.  And in response to my friend last weekend, I told her that I don’t have any great answers but I do strive to be hope, speak hope, live hope.  Perhaps therein lies one of the answers to the Bee Gees’ song and to life!

Live and Be HOPE this week!

Perhaps some of you remember this classic:

I can think of younger days when living for my life
Was everything a man (we)  could want to do
I could never see tomorrow, but I was never told about the sorrow

And how can you mend a broken heart?
How can you stop the rain from falling down?
How can you stop the sun from shining?
What makes the world go round?
How can you mend a this broken man (person)?
How can a loser ever win?
Please help me mend my broken heart and let me live again

I can still feel the breeze that rustles through the trees
And misty memories of days gone by
We could never see tomorrow, no one said a word about the sorrow

And how can you mend a broken heart?
How can you stop the rain from falling down?
How can you stop the sun from shining?
What makes the world go round?
How can you mend this broken man (person)?
How can a loser ever win?
Please help me mend my broken heart and let me live again

Sr. Debbie Blow