A beautiful grace of being human is how we all need help and can be of help. The reciprocity of divine assistance is a blessing we can simultaneously savor and share.
So, I often look to the written word for enhanced perspective about where I am or what is happening, and especially for guidance on how to get to where I am going.
I am curious how things feel. What are the sensations or experiential clues that indicate we’re in the right place or following the right trail?
One of the drawbacks of dealing with trauma by prolonged disconnection is the numbness that voids physiological wisdom. The invisible cage of guilt and shame was like a straightjacket, and those blocked sensations felt like everything was my fault.
Reading more and experiencing language through other voices helped me figure out how to feel.
Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Langston Hughes, “Mother to Son”
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor —
Bare.
In Langston Hughes, I find a voice that is unvarnished, unrestrained, and unapologetic. His voice is honest, free of pretense, and full of self-disclosure. The clarity in Hughes’ writing conveys his dignity and determination to unmask the indignities he witnessed and experienced as a Black man.
He wrote to reveal the reality of “people up today and down tomorrow, working this week and fired the next, beaten and baffled, but determined to not be wholly beaten.” His writing reveals hope for humanity and belief in its divine harmony, which racial and political systems interrupt and complicate.
“Mother to Son” provides poetic affirmation and guidance for how to navigate worldly obstacles and hardships with simplicity of faith. In the endearing voice of a parent to child, Hughes metaphorically tells the story of how life unfolds as a series of steps, a calling upward, and persistent movement into the sometimes dark unknown.
The mother’s staircase helps me better understand the experience of the beatitudes — expressions that describe the characteristics of those who walk the narrow way and follow Jesus. With humility of spirit and endurance, meekness and mercy, we not only maneuver around the tacks and splinters that litter our path but also make meaning of the torn places, which God’s faithfulness will make smooth.
United to a community of believers, here and beyond, we sense glimmers of hope; we believe, at any moment, the light will come.
When the obstacle is the way, then the only way is through.
And “blessed are you,” Jesus says … if we keep going.
