So, Tell Me My Sister

by, Cassandra Perrymon Dennis

Empathy can also mean being present without words.

This season can feel warm and bright for some or painfully heavy for others. When life is loud with expectations and quiet with unspoken grief, we don't always need perfect words; sometimes we need the presence of someone who cares (empathy), a steady voice, and a safe person willing to sit with us long enough for the light to feel warm again. This poem is a compassionate plea, a sisterly check-in that dares to ask the deeper questions:

• What do you want?

• What happened to you?

• What will you choose next?

I pulled this poem, "So Tell Me My Sister," © from my archive as a reminder that encouragement can be a bridge, and that sometimes, while trying to lift someone else, we end up preaching hope back into our own bones.

So, tell me my Sister, what are your dreams, your fantasies, your goals to achieve?

            Your purpose, your mission, your plan to weave?

What are your core values? You know what I mean.

            What defines your character, your worth?  You know those values

            that consistently redeem your moral compass, that undergirds your

            passion, that inspire and empower you to

Dream above average,

to Think above average,

to LIVE . . . above average.

Crickets… I can’t hear you my Sister.  Come out of the well of your mind, return to the light, follow my voice, explore, evaluate and retrieve your life.

TELL Me, TELL Me, TELL Me my Sister, what happened in your life that depleted you, defeated you, and embittered your mind to all mankind?!

            It is not my fault, I’m only extending a hand, but I will ask for forgiveness as

            I stand in the place of the One’s who hurt you.

My Sister STOP!

            Don’t focus on the darkness.  Inside the bowels of your mind can be a tricky

            place, a slippery slope which has the ability to envelope you into an abyss

            of no return.

            Hear my voice, seek the footprints on the path that has already been laid

            out for your journey.

Focus on the intermittent lights that represent multiple hands of opportunity to be redeemed, renewed and restored.  Don’t pass it up for the land of self-pity, for what has that land done for you lately?

I’m here my Sister,

            Your life is YOURS to explore, YOURS to evaluate, YOURS to retrieve and

            YOURS to LIVE; but the choice to act, is YOURS.

So, Tell Me My Sister, what do you choose?

Reflection Point: Something to Munch On

1. Where have you been living lately, in the "well of your mind" or in the intermittent lights, and what would it look like to take one step toward the light this week?

2. If you could answer the poem's opening questions honestly (dreams, purpose, values), what is one truth you've been avoiding, and one choice you're ready to make now?