Unmoored

With this blog post, we are sharing the creative work of Rhonda Nichols. This poem reflects the deep grief of someone who has sacrificed everything for a spiritual sisterhood, only to face loneliness, betrayal, and bodily breakdown, all while holding on to faith and the hope of healing. 

It’s the sisterhood she grieves

A kinship only known by those

who have given up everything

Compelled by a calling, a struggle

Sometimes bullied,

stung by words expressed in secret

Living in a fishbowl with few to trust

Becoming the talkers and talked about around tables

Living like a rolling stone

No pillow to rest upon, no shared embrace

God alone to lean on

The natural rhythms of the body

tamped down, ignored 

until something gives

and it’s acceptable to “care for health”

I have heard their whispers

in late night visits

when it’s safe enough to share

Always under threat

of your name being removed from a list

Lists that define who you are, where you go

Still she grieves the sisterhood stolen

by the breakdown of her body

and the wonderment of God’s work in humanity

Challenged by life moving forward

No record of car insurance, no bank account

When only cash flowed through your fingers,

it’s hard to start anew

Running to catch up with peers,

the treasure gleaned remains,

as entitlement and pedestal sitting fall away

We are souls on a human journey

I rejoice in this

Souls are not defined by what happens to them

but eternal, forever learning to heal and grow

~ Rhonda Nichols