Transcript

Hi, Helen here, from Preparing the Way.

One of the things I have the pleasure of doing in my life is attending a writing class. And how it works is that our teacher provides a poem to us and we listen to that poem and then we’re given 15 minutes to write whatever that inspires for us. And the poem that we were given recently was by Mary Oliver and called ‘The Sunflowers’. And here is what it inspired for me. And I was asked to record this so that people could hear it again. So I hope that you get something out of this. The assignment, the name of the assignment was ‘Come with Me’.

Come with Me

To walk amongst the fields of humanity
Seeing their faces upturned to the sunny heavens seeking answers, solace and certainty.
Their spines often bent, aching with the weight of all they carry.
The leaves of their book filled with the sticky things of life.
Do come with me, visit them, sit with them, be with them…for they are often shy and do want to be friends.
Oh, avail yourself of their glorious stories of when they were young and strong, filled with vigour and dreams.
Do ask them questions and then listen…deeply. They have seeds to share a plenty. Pause, give them time to answer and listen through your heart…their lives to witness and affirm.
See their faces brighten as they bask in the radiance of your heart listening, of your attention fully given. In turn, bask in their glory and beauty as they come alive in their reminiscing and sharing.
Have your hand and heart out, calling them forward into the celebration that their lives are – for surely, to have lived is to have received and given just as the earth and sun dance together.
In our generous listening and warm focus freely given – they bloom, open and ripen. There arises a freedom to release and grow, expanding into the truth of their lives in all its droughts, floods and fires.
All their deeply rooted experiences uplifting into the air,
Strongholds loosening, relieved
Fixities softening
Oh, do come with me and be amongst the garden of our peoples,
For there, do we find ourselves
Mirrored, understood and completed
Sometimes the loudest voices come from the smallest hurt
Sometimes the softest from the largest.
Who knows until we visit the field of humanity…
I have nothing greater to show you or share with you than this.
Come with me
Come with me…

For me, that’s like an invitation to come and be with people as they’re journeying, ageing, or end of life, or in their grieving time and bereavement. Be with people. Reach out.