"Sometimes People Just Need To Talk..."

Photo credit: BBC. Please visit Radio Canada International's article on Richard Wagamese HERE.

tRichard Wagamese's book "EMBERS; One Ojibway's Meditations" is filled with powerful, down to Earth, meditations, prayers and philosophies by this beloved Indigenous Canadian author.  You can learn about Wagamese here:  www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/richard-wagamese

Today, I shared this meditation with my hospice team.  We all work hard to serve our patients, families and one another.  All of us - wherever we work or play - know the complexities of caring for others in times of stress.  Sometimes, the task feels overwhelming.  We can feel entangled in the complexity of  being human, of what caring for one another means, and the many layers of need, desire, pain. . . Yet Wagamese reminds us that caring does not necessarily need to be complicated.  He calls us to remember one simple, yet profound, fact:

"Sometimes, people just need to talk."

“Sometimes people just need to talk.
They need to be heard. They need the validation of my time, my silence, my unspoken compassion.
They don't need advice, sympathy or counselling.
They need to hear the sound of their own voices speaking their own truths, articulating their own feelings, as those may be at a particular moment.
Then, when they're finished, they simply need a nod of the head, a pat on the shoulder or a hug.
I'm learning that sometimes silence really is golden, and that sometimes "Fuck, eh?" is as spiritual a thing as needs to be said.”
 

Click the image below to purchase Richard Wagames's wonderful book of meditations.