Good morning…
I am suffering from a solidarity headache.
Solidarity means the feeling of union with others in a community. The expression of unity within a group formed by a common bond. The fellowship arising from shared purpose, interest, or sympathy. I have a solidarity headache right now.
I feel union with one dear friend from my Wednesday afternoon Bible study who will bury her husband tomorrow following his shocking death. I share sympathy with a young man I care for deeply, a good friend of my son’s who is battled bravely the beast of addiction, who will lay to rest the father who believed in him constantly. I cherish the fellowship with another close friend who is resting in her nest at home following yesterday’s successful surgery to remove a tumor her doctor called “Charles Manson in second grade.” People I love are in excruciating pain, mentally, physically, spiritually, and when people I love hurt, I hurt too. That is why I have a solidarity headache.
I could try to close off, numb the pain, feel nothing. I could try to back up and back out, isolating, self-protected. I could be sucked down into their dark vortex, but how could I be of help lost in their painful pit? Instead I choose to appreciate the gifts born out of my solidarity headache. Feeling deeply with my friends is a mutual blessing, a mutual blessing sparking gut-wrenching prayer.
Yesterday, I was reminded of why I take the risk of loving with my whole heart. My morning was filled with the simple pleasure of walking in the sunshine and talking over tea with a special friend valiantly fighting brain cancer. Intimate time with her gives me the courage to live up close and open hearted, gracefully growing in peace with life’s joy and life’s sorrow, slowing down to listen to the painful purpose of my solidarity headache.
Little children (believers, dear ones), let us not love [merely in theory] with word or with tongue [giving lip service to compassion], but in action and in truth [in practice and in sincerity, because practical acts of love are more than words], 1 John 3:18 (AMP),
Sue
