Journal of Sacred Work

[Note: Today’s Meditation was written by Catherine Self, Senior Vice President of Nashville’s Baptist Healing Trust]

How beautiful is
gentleness, whose face
Like April sunshine, or the summer rain,
Swells everywhere the buds of generous
thought; 

   I recently read a self description in which the writer
confessed “Gentle is not the first
word people use when they describe me.” * I immediately connected with the writer as I
also have never heard that word used by others in describing me. What I especially
appreciated, however, was the author’s perspective of at least being “on the
journey towards gentleness.”

   There is nothing so strong as gentleness – such a strange
phrase written by an unknown author years ago. The word gentleness is one I hear, read and use. But what do I really
know of this thing we call
gentleness? I
see its tenderness when my husband holds our sleeping granddaughter’s
hand. I sense its lightness when I feel
the sweet rest of my youngest nephew’s hand on top of mine as we sit reading a
book. I have moved gently when helping an older patient find comfort in the midst of the pain and fear of learning to walk for the first time again.  I was gentle with my Dad when tears streaked his face, embarrassed at the care he needed from me as he entered into death’s hallway.  I hope that what he and others felt in return was the gentleness of Love.
   Words written over a century ago by Canadian poet Archibald Lampman have recently called me to pay attention to this journey of becoming gentle:

Blind multitudes that jar confusedly
At strife, earth’s children, will ye never rest
From toils made hateful here and dawns distressed
With raveling self-engendered misery? 
And will ye never know, till sleep shall see
Your graves, how dreadful and how dark indeed
Are pride, self-will, and blind-voiced anger, greed,
And malice with its subtle currency?  How beautiful is gentleness, whose face
Like April sunshine, or the summer rain,
Swells everywhere the buds of generous thoughts;
So easy, and so sweet it is; its grace
Smooths out so soon the tangled knots of pain. 
Can ye not learn it?  Will ye not be taught?

   Like others on this journey of becoming, I know that I can, and often do, move too fast and talk too loudly. And how easily I so eagerly jump into conversations, invited or not!  Yet the gentleness of Love calls me to slow down, to bring myself into the space of others with reverence and awe, to share, oh so softly and gently, the gifts of healing and Love.
   Can we not learn this?  Will we not be taught?

*O’Connor,
Rita. (2007) On the Journey Towards
Becoming More Gentle, written for the Henry Nouwen Society