To Listen
“We all suffer, at times, from the effort to study something instead of living it; or from the effort to fix or advise rather than to listen and to hold. So, the first duty of love is to listen. When I think of the times I have truly listened in my life – to the sea’s endless lapping, to the sighs of my loved ones when they thought no one was near – it is receiving these simple truths that has made me a better person. So often when we refuse to listen, we become obsessed with remaking the world in our own image, rather than opening the spirit within us to the spirit of what is. At the deepest level, ours is not to make ourselves heard but to be still enough to hear. To truly listen is to risk being changed.”
Mark Nepo, Book of Awakening
A sign outside Santa Barbara Hospital in Sucre, Bolivia, offers “Advice to counter anxiety during Covid-19,” such as #2: Prepare yourself for difficult situations, and #6: Stay calm.
Earlier this spring, Solidarity Bridge missioners and staff convened for an afternoon retreat around the theme: Solace Through Solidarity in the Midst of the Pandemic. The retreat was led by Dr. Joe Sherman, a pediatrician based in Washington state and a Solidarity Bridge team chaplain. To open the retreat, Joe shared the above quote and invited us to reflect on its meaning both for our personal lives and for our mission as Solidarity Bridge.
For many months now, conversations and headlines have expressed sentiments like “We are all in this together” or “We are all in the same storm” to communicate the pandemic’s global impact. But we know this is not accurate. Inequitable access to PPE, oxygen, ICU beds, and now vaccines, have meant that some in our global family have suffered more acutely than others.
This continues to be true for our beloved partners and colleagues in Bolivia and Paraguay. Right now, both countries are in a new, catastrophic phase of the COVID crisis. Once again, cases are rising, ICU beds are full, surgeries are on hold, oxygen and medications are scarce, and health systems are strained to the point of collapse. To give one example of the dire conditions, our partners at the Itaguá Hospital in Paraguay have reported that they are even out of gloves. These unfathomable shortages, alongside the heart-wrenching loss of life, continue to devastate the region. According to Reuters1, the death toll from COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean passed one million people last month, with the pandemic worsening in this part of the world which already has the highest per capita death rate. And vaccines? Just three percent of Latin Americans have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Patricia Vargas, Executive Director of Puente de Solidaridad, recently reported to our team: “Estamos al borde de una catástrofe sanitaria. Dios no permita que lleguemos a eso.” (“We are on the brink of a health catastrophe. God forbid we get to that.”)
Solidarity calls us to a deeper awareness that we are all interrelated and profoundly connected. Theologian Elizabeth Johnson reminds us that as we forge deep connections with others, their sufferings and joys become part of our own personal concern and spur us to transformative action in the world. As we continue to gather virtually across our bridge, our hearts long to be together in person with our colleagues, partners and patients. With great hope, we know that day will come.
But when it does, we may be tempted to rush into fixing and advising. Needs are urgent. Patients have waited for long-delayed surgeries, hospitals have waited for new equipment, and we have all waited to be together to advance our mission in person. But it is critical to remind ourselves: the first duty of love is to listen.
What will it mean for us to respond to this call to listen and hold?
How can we be still enough to risk being changed as we listen to the deep suffering our colleagues and friends are experiencing?
What is this moment asking of each one of us?
Thumbnail photo (line to refill oxygen tanks) credit: FERNANDO CARTAGENA AFP/File