39 Comments
Sep 30, 2021Liked by Cheryl Strayed

I love everything about this. I have a mantra I say to my teenage daughter when she is struggling: I get you and I got you. Isn't that what we all want and need -- to be understood and for someone to have our back. And the people said...Amen.

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Sep 30, 2021Liked by Cheryl Strayed

These words opened the dam of emotions I've been holding in for 2 months since my dog went missing. I've let her down, one who never could trust anyone and then she had me..... What do I do with the feelings, the not knowing, do I give up or continue the search..... Thank you for opening the floodgates that refused to open to this profound grief I'm feeling. Missing her.....failing her.

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Sep 30, 2021Liked by Cheryl Strayed

Dear Sugar,

Your writing is very comforting. I lost my beloved husband of only a year to Covid in May 2020. It brought me to my knees. He was a law professor of 50 years and was in great shape. I had been married for thirty years and lost my first husband to cancer in 2013. In June 2020 I was diagnosed with lymphoma. I went through through five months of chemo, I’ve been in remission for a year ! Thank you for your writing.

Jan

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Grateful for the tears of recognition that spilled, reading this. I too, hold X, and Spent, and all the Sisterhood of the Falling Hair. May we all find peace in each other.

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Thank you so much. Very moving.

I am holding X in the Light. (A Quaker version of a prayer.)

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Sep 30, 2021Liked by Cheryl Strayed

I am part of that same church (I grew up attending) - and the night you prayed, my father was dying. I didn't submit a specific request, but it's a comfort to know that you were praying for members of the church community that night. Thank you for your love and light, and I'll keep X in my thoughts.

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Sep 30, 2021Liked by Cheryl Strayed

Thanks for this, Cheryl. So many of us are spent and wondering how to keep going through these dark times. Knowing that we’re in this together, although none of us has the answers, helps. I’m sorry for your loved one’s struggle. I hope they find their way too. We can all hold each other in prayer or light or whatever we believe in and whisper “keep going. I got you.” It feels so much better when we all have each other.

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Sep 30, 2021Liked by Cheryl Strayed

Very uplifting, Cheryl. What a lovely response. I wanted to also mention that my hair fell out in globs last year as well (I'm also menopausal, stressed, and middle-aged), but it has come back this year as my hormones leveled out and my stress decreased, so there's hope!

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Many years ago I was attending a course and the conversation got around to people many of us were loving, hurting for, wanting to help. We talked about all of us "praying for them" but some folks were uncomfortable with the concept of prayer and what that meant for them. So we came up with this. We used the person's name and each one of us, separately and repeatedly, one at a time said..."I am X"

It was very moving. Even though I had no personal knowledge of many of the people I was "praying" for , this gave me such a connection to them. I felt so deeply for them. I took them into my soul and held them there. I did something that felt supportive and loving. I hope it was.

I am X.

I am Spent.

I am Sugar.

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Sep 30, 2021Liked by Cheryl Strayed

omg just beautiful...thank you <3

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Sep 30, 2021Liked by Cheryl Strayed

Lovely, Cheryl. Hope X finds the light.

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Thank you, I needed this today. I’m also a nurse and I feel for all my fellow nurses who are feeling like they are getting their hearts trampled on from every direction.

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Dearest Spent, Fellow Nurse and perennial comforter of others. I am glad that you wrote to Sugar. She is quite remarkable. And sometimes just the writing is a cleansing of immeasurable proportion but the sharing doubles that, I believe. I follow no specific religion (Caroline Myss calls all religions Costume Parties. :)), but I do believe in a Divine Presence that does indeed hear our longings and desires, especially for others. For another support place for yourself or anyone in your circle: Unity has a Prayer Request line where you can either call and pray with someone there OR email in your request. They will reply via email and let you know that they will be praying for you for 30 days. Please know that I am saying a prayer for you right now and after each entry I say a little prayer too. May you each find peace.

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Cheryl, this is beautiful. Thank you. Do you know the story of the Skeleton Woman? Clarissa Pinkola Estes tells a version of it and it is recounted here, if any would like to see it: https://murmurationsdance.org/skeleton-woman At one point in the story, a fisherman gently untangles poor Skeleton Woman’s bones from his fishing line, while tenderly singing “Oh na, na, na…” as he goes. (Before this point he was afraid of her.) “Oh na, na, na….” I sing it to my wife when she is hurting and scared, “Oh na, na, na…” and we untangle the bones together. And I want to sing it to Spent, and to you, and to the big tangled up world right now… oh na, na, na. One day we will feel whole again. Big prayers going out tonight!

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Dear Spent, dear Sugar, dear All

Thank you, Cheryl, for your thoughtful lines. Thank you, Spent, for sharing.

To all of you who are suffering I write it out loud: open your pores and let all these atoms of empathic feelings and wishes from Cheryl’s reading community slip into every cell of yours, sending you energy and hope. At least mines are finding their way from Europe into your hearts and souls.

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I love the rhythm of your writing.

It speeds me up then bring me down.

Wild had the same rhythm.

Thank you.

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