offering

a conversation with a friend today has me thinking.
i watch a lotta pain and struggle come thru bone sigh arts.
and i have seen the ones who seem to really heal are the ones who
offer what they've learned on the journey to others. they offer their struggle,
they offer their hearts, they offer their real.

i've seen that be key in the road to healing.
i'm not sure why.
maybe it has something to do with the opening that's required when
you offer what's inside you.
i don't know.
but i know i watch it over and over again.

but how about on the road to actually getting thru the struggle?
what if you're in a long term struggle?
it's not over by a long shot. you got a long way to go.
and what if there are just no easy answers.
you're in it and it sucks.

those are lonely times. even if you have people around you,
the struggle is yours and it's isolating and lonely.

maybe then it's equally as important to make an offering of yourself
and what you're feeling and learning and experiencing.

in any way that feels right.
maybe just in honestly telling another struggling friend about your
own struggles. maybe in painting it out, writing it out, creating it out.
maybe it standing up in a group and sharing it.
in any way that feels right - maybe taking the struggle and making it more
than something that is wearing you out. maybe changing it into something
that's weary making for sure, but also connection making.

maybe in the opening in another way - in the offering of who we are as
we journey - we transform struggle into more.
maybe we open the door for the gold to leak out.

i have thought this was important when we were trying to stand up after
the struggle had come and knocked us down.

i'm not sure i ever thought about it before as something that mattered
as we were actually getting knocked down.

but this afternoon, i'm thinking it matters always.
in all parts of the journey.