Posts Tagged ‘#metoo’

 

Prayer While Reliving Abuse

Posted on: October 7th, 2018 by Alden

This is a prayer to be said by those who are re-experiencing the traumas of abuse: physical, sexual and emotional. This prayer borrows language from “Prayer after Abuse by Clergy.” Thank you to Rabbi Paul Kipnes for suggesting this topic for a prayer.

Prayer While Reliving Abuse
Those memories.
Those unwanted memories…
They come rushing back,
Unbidden and undeniable,
Haunting my days and stalking my nights.

G-d of Old,
How could you have let this happen?
How can this exist in Your world?

Yet, in the shadow of this grief,
Even with the return of this suffering,
Yearning for healing
And with a heartbeat of despair,
I turn to You, Ancient One,
To show me the path to wholeness and consolation.
Teach me to trust,
To love with fullness of heart.
Teach me willingness to surrender to awe and beauty.
Teach me to treat myself with patience and kindness.
[Help me to _______________ (add your personal prayer).]
Let me live fully, with zest and zeal.

G-d of compassion,
Heal all who have suffered physical, sexual or emotional abuse.
Bring us from darkness to light.
Bring justice to those who commit these crimes.
Heal all in need of Your loving shelter.
Make us all, now and forever, whole again.

© 2018 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

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#MeToo, No More: the 11th Psalm of Protest

Posted on: September 30th, 2018 by Alden

This Psalm of Protest is to be “sung by brave women with a chorus of honest men.” It was inspired by the bravery of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testifying before the Senate, and that of Ana Maria Archila and Maria Gallagher confronting Sen. Jeff Flake in a Senate elevator. The psalm alludes to both Dr. Ford’s testimony and the moment when Ms. Gallagher tells Sen. Flake to look at her. See also “Psalms of Protest 1, 2 and 3,” “Psalms of Protest 4, 5 and 6” and “Psalms of Protest 7 to 10.”

Psalm of Protest 11: #MeToo, No More
A psalm of protest,
Sung by brave women,
With a chorus of honest men.

Brave Women: What willful ignorance!
What blatant deceit!
That you in the halls of power detest us with disbelief.
That you loath us with scorn.

Look at me.
Look into my eyes when I speak.
Look at us,
The hundreds, the thousands,
The myriad beyond count,
As numerous as the stars in the sky.
Silenced by trauma.
Silenced by fear.
Silenced by you.
No more!
Me too. Me too. Me too.

Honest Men: We believe.
We know.
We have been silent too long.

Brave Women: What arrogant pretense!
What feigned sympathy!
That you in the halls of power
Dismiss us with false words of feigned understanding.

We have been raped,
Fondled, pushed, grabbed, groped,
Forced into corners,
Forced onto beds,
Drugged into submission,
Abused, beaten,
Left cold and alone.
Look into my eyes when I speak.

Honest Men: We believe.
We know.
We have been silent too long.

Brave Women: We tremble, terrified,
The trauma seared indelibly into the hippocampus,
The laughter and the disdain,
The violence and the anger,
The violation and the abandonment.
We demand to be heard.
We demand to be seen.
We demand justice from halls of power.

Join us, brave women.
Join us, honest men.
Together, in one voice, declare:

All: Me too, no more!
Not in the courts.
Not in the White House.
Not in our lives.
Not in the lives of anyone.

Brave Women: And we will lead the way.

© 2018 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com.

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Postscript: The call of justice is not enough. Men and women must be part of co-creating a better world, a world with no space for sexual assault, emotional degradation, personal harassment or rape.

Please check out my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer,” and This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” To receive my latest prayers via email, please subscribe (on the home page). You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter.

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