The Courage to Stay Close to Ourselves

On the spiritual path we learn, slowly slowly, to stay close to ourselves. We learn to stay when we long to escape. We learn to touch the vulnerability of our tender hearts and stay there a while. We learn that we are big enough to hold all the movements of our experience.

This poem was inspired by a recent session with a client and I thank him, as I thank all my clients, for trusting me to bear witness to his journey. The spiritual path is a path of courage. We find that courage first to alleviate the suffering in our own lives. Later, we find that courage to alleviate the suffering of all beings.

The Courage to Stay Close

Therapist and client is not it.
Nor is coach and client.
Teacher and student doesn’t fit.
Neither does ‘friends’.

So what are we then, you and I?
And what is this time, this space we share?
Am I helping you?
Or are you helping me?
And what is helping, anyway?

We talked a lot at first.
You had questions you wanted to ask.
I had questions for you, too.
We tossed around some concepts;
mulled them over in our minds.
It’s necessary, sometimes, all this.
It helps prepare the ground.
Eases us in for the courageous stuff.

And then we’d had enough.
We wanted to get down to it.
And you can never remember quite how it happened.
It’s just that suddenly you’re meeting one another.
Not therapist and client
or coach and client
or teacher and student
but two hearts meeting and melting in the galaxy.

Alone but together.
Separate but one.
Different but the same.

Your courage was immense.
Face wet with tears, I felt what it took for you to stay right where you were.
To touch the raw edge of feeling
and not escape to the familiar comfort of your thinking.

This is the hard work.
But this is also the beautiful beginning.
A return to the heart.
A return home.

Love and courage,

Leah