{"id":521,"date":"2011-04-10T01:23:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-10T05:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/?p=521"},"modified":"2011-04-10T01:38:29","modified_gmt":"2011-04-10T05:38:29","slug":"bearing-witness-sunday-lent-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/bearing-witness-sunday-lent-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Bearing Witness: Sunday, Lent 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some years ago, in need of a change of scenery and fewer distractions as I entered the final stretch of working on a new book, I went to Miami and spent a week in the home of friends. I had taken along my copy of An Interrupted Life<\/strong><\/em>. At the time, this abridged version of Etty Hillesum’s diaries was the only available edition of her work. One evening I picked it up to look for a quotation that I wanted to include in my book. I soon realized that I would not be able to simply skim through Etty’s words to find the passage I sought.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the course of the week I reread the book cover to cover, taking in Etty’s words more slowly than I had done the first time I read them. I found myself struck by the similarity of some of the questions that Etty and I both carried and devastated anew by the extinguishing of the woman whom her friends had described as “a luminous personality.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Our week with Etty here at Sanctuary of Women closes with a poem I wrote during that Miami sojourn.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

For Etty, Who Still Walks
\non the Path of Witness<\/em><\/p>\n

It is midday in Miami.
\nEsther, who bears your given name,
\nsets an orchid on the table outside
\nwhere I sit surrounded
\nby hibiscus and blooming cactus,
\nby poinsettia and palm.<\/p>\n

This tropical haven
\nwould be foreign to you,
\nbut I think this is how
\nyour soul must have looked:
\na riot of color,
\na garden of defiance
\nplanted against the growing terror.<\/p>\n

I long for your presence
\nat this table,
\nto tell you how your words
\nbore fruit
\nbore witness
\nbore hope
\nin the decades that followed,
\nhow every phrase was a seed
\nthat settled in the throats
\nof those struggling to speak,
\nhow every sentence became a bloom
\nin the hands of those writing their way
\nout of the wilderness.<\/p>\n

Bless us, Etty,
\nfor there is still much
\nthat cries out for witness,
\nand the shadows grow long,
\nand we need endless healing balm.<\/p>\n

Closing blessing<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Blessed are you
\nwho bear witness
\nin these times,
\nfor from your words
\nwill flow a balm
\nfor all wounds.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

“For Etty, Who Still Walks on the Path of Witness” is from In Wisdom’s Path<\/strong>, and the closing blessing is from Sacred Journeys<\/strong>, both \u00a9 Jan L. Richardson.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some years ago, in need of a change of scenery and fewer distractions as I entered the final stretch of working on a new book, I went to Miami and spent a week in the home of friends. I had taken along my copy of An Interrupted Life. At the time, this abridged version of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lent","category-sacred-time"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p190Xv-8p","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":528,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521\/revisions\/528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}