Let yourself be surprised by the sudden peace that comes as you name your fears. ~ Karin Fendick

Let yourself be surprised by the sudden peace that comes as you name your fears. ~ Karin Fendick

  DAYS ON THE EDGE AND SUDDEN PEACE

We have lived through months of isolation, fear, and pain multiplied by loneliness, political unrest, senseless murder, and racism slicing through lives and opening old scars.

As morning stiffness leaves me aching, I struggle to search for joy. Will the pain worsen? Will new health issues arise? What if the medications stop providing any help?

There are so many reasons to be anxious — then we begin to beat ourselves up because we know we shouldn’t worry.

“Some people feel guilty about their anxieties and regard them as a defect of faith but they are afflictions, not sins. Like all afflictions, they are, if we can so take them, our share in the passion of Christ.” (C. S. Lewis)

Paulo Coelho in his Manuscrito encontrado em Accra wrote:

Anxiety was born in the very same moment as mankind. And since we will never be able to master it, we will have to learn to live with it—just as we have learned to live with storms.”

I found a little snippet that I love, written by an unknown author (often incorrectly attributed to Elizabeth Barrett Browning):

“The little cares that fretted me,
I lost them yesterday
Among the fields above the sea,
Among the winds at play.”

 

SOME IDEAS TO SPARK A POEM OR WORDS OF YOUR OWN

  • What do you do with your anxious thoughts?
  • What do they look like?
  • Is there a picture that forms in your mind? Does it have a color? A texture?
  • What song can you sing to anxiety to slow its rhythm?

Don’t be concerned about editing. There is time for that later. Allow the words to bounce around and find their own shape.

Let yourself be surprised by the sudden peace that comes as you name your fears.

As your poem finds its way, feel free to share it with us. We’re all in this together.

Here is what percolated as I thought about my own anxious thoughts:

 

BREATHE

tension and confusion

left cracks

in my spirit

the air grew thin

as light faded

harder each day

to inhale Him

but even as I was letting go

He held me strong

I grabbed hold

before all hope leaked away

learning anew

how to breathe

exhale anxiety

inhale peace

exhale defeat

inhale victory

exhale self

inhale Jesus

life, light and joy returning

first in drips

now in cascades

Karin Fendick

Karin Fendick

Chronic Joy® Staff Writer and Prayer Team

Karin is a handmaiden of the Lord, saved by grace, a worshiper, a poet, a broken heart, a lover of words, His work in progress on the Potter's wheel. She is hungry for truth and amazed by love. After five years in Africa, Karin and Rick (her beloved husband of twenty years), are back in rural Canada where chronic pain drives her to the feet of Jesus. She is powered by prayer, love, and many cups of strong coffee. She is the author of From Ashes to Glory (A Psalm a Day).

Accessible Poetry

Poetry is an invitation to explore your story in a new way, to write about moments or emotions without specifically naming them, to play with the musicality of words and phrases; to choose words, punctuation, and line breaks carefully. There is no right or wrong way to read or write poetry, just an invitation to begin.

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