From Connections, the Chronic Pain Support Group newsletter, Spring 2002
Ah, Spring! “Puddle wonderful” and “mud-luscious,” as e.e. cummings described the season he so aptly called “Just-spring.” I hope by the time you read this, the sun will be warm on our faces.
Winter is difficult for many reasons: the cold tenses muscles and aggravates sore joints; it requires heavy clothing that we have to hoist on and off; the ice limits mobility and threatens us with falling.
But it is the spiritual winter that is hardest to bear. In that winter, depression sets in and we don’t have the energy to get up in the morning. It is then that pain overwhelms us, then that we avoid friends and shut down.
The support we give each other helps us make it through those bleak winter days, whether in December or July. The pain doesn’t go away, but the weight of being misunderstood is lifted.
Let us celebrate spring by offering support to those who need it. Perhaps then our spirits—if not our bodies—will soar.