Pain

Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures,

speaks in our consciences,

but shouts in our pains.

It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

                                                                                       C.S. Lewis

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Pain settles in

An makes itself at home

In a body, long abused

There it its

Coming and going

at times just a nuisance

and in other moments

roaring, forcing all attention on itself

unavoidable and unrelenting

there are of course many kinds of pain

emotional pain,

the kind we feel when love is not returned

spiritual pain

which rips through one’s soul as politicians

and preachers, and business people

behave badly

justifying the unjustifiable

abandoning the vulnerable

those fragile souls

for profit and power

so I walk through my day

fighting through surges of physical pain

struggling with a sickness of the soul

that only Sacred time can soften

trying to keep going

trying to be present to other

trying to serve

and wondering why

the clock moves so slowly

and bed time

is so far away