Mother Bear’s Lament
Breathing in...
Breathing out...
Easy for us to say,
But when your lungs don’t work so well,
you find other ways to breathe.
You breathe in Spirit
and breathe out images
poems
stories
games
memories
jokes—
and splash them across a Facebook page.
I watch in awe,
tears streaming down my face,
grateful for each breath in
and each breath out,
yet raging against the struggle
each breath demands of him.
Like a fierce mother bear,
I growl and extend my claws
to protect my cub,
but there’s nothing for my claws to tear into.
They have no power against the disease
that chokes his lungs.
Charlotte Nichols
April 25, 2009
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Mother Bear's Lament
A couple of years ago, I joined a women's poetry group that meets at my church, Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland, Ohio. This group of wonderful people meets monthly under the wise and compassionate leadership of Mary Anne Woodward. It is a wonderfully safe setting in which to give expression to my feelings about all kinds of things. One Saturday last April, I wrote this during a meeting of the group.
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Your post reminds me of a patient I knew at a local hospital where for a few years I was a communion minister. She was so young, so tiny and thin. She would show up on my list periodically - when she'd be admitted. But it seemed she was growing worse. The last couple of times she was in isolation, so I couldn't go in the room. From the hallway it looked like she was surrounded by family in a somber stage of what looked like waiting.
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine your fierce desire to protect your son. May God be with you both.
TheraP: a belated thank you for your comment. I love your blog. In fact, it was a major inspiration for mine. I'm a little slow catching on to this blogging thing. I posted a couple of things in April and then never went back to see if there were comments.
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