Persevering...

Well it seems as though this grand experiment has not gone so well. I'm not sure why I haven't bothered to post in so long.

I read many fantastic blogs that have an awesome theme or the writing is really profound or they have great insight on popular culture or what's going on in the world. I didn't really intend this space to be centered around any of these things. Mostly just the things I think about and need to put out in the world. Truthfully I don't know how to make it my space. (Also my computer is broken so I'm sort of borrowing my dear roommates computer when I can)

Well to attempt to get things rolling again I shall share a story and whatever insight I can draw from it.

I shall also attempt to be a more faithful updater in the future for you faithful readers (all two of you I'm sure) but also for myself because this is something I need.

The Story of Nugget

I work in a homeless shelter for transitional age youth (18-25) and we see a range of young people. Many of them are dealing with a lot of past trauma, mental health issues, drug use, etc...

Last summer one of our young women adopted a baby chick (we allow pets). She named him Nugget (did I mention how funny and clever our youth are?) This young lady in particular has dealt with quite a lot of trauma in her life. She tends to have episodes where she just kind of loses it. In one of these episodes she killed little Nugget. As someone who cares deeply for all life I was very upset about the entire situation. How do we hold the balance of her trauma with the life she took?

Well quite a few months later she told me that she felt that the soul of Nugget resided in me. She believed that he could live on at the shelter through me. I don't mean this to be narcissistic and I am getting around to the big picture here. I guess that too was a pretty shocking thing to hear.

The story is not really about whether I harbor the sole of little Nugget, though I would hope to be worthy of such a soul. And this story is not really about whether or not chickens have souls, though I would like to believe that they do.

What I see in the big picture is this question: Can the place of our great trauma be the place of our healing as well? Did this young lady seek some kind of forgiveness in the belief that even though she had taken a life part of Nugget could survive and she herself could be okay? Can any of ask for anything more? That though we've hurt or been hurt we can still find healing, acceptance, forgiveness in this world. I would like to believe this is true for this young woman, for me, for all of us.