Cries of the Heart

by Charles “Tom” Brown
Copyright 2007

As a teacher’s aide in the Arizona prison system, I often help students to prepare for their GED essay requirement. To prepare for this, they are given the format and the topic for their essay. A recent topic was, “If you could have one wish, what would it be?” and I assumed that most would be wishes to get out of prison or something of that nature. Instead, many were cries of the heart…cries to love and be loved.

One essay stated, “If I could have one wish, I would wish for a letter from my mother. She hasn’t written to me in years and it would mean so much to me to get a letter from her.”

Another inmate has a two-year old daughter who is with foster parents and he declared that his wish would be to hear his daughter on the phone. I told him that she wouldn’t be able to say much at the age of two, and he replied, “I just want to hear the sound of her voice.”

As I read these essays, I am reminded that we never lose our deep basic need to connect with soulfulness of each other’s heart. Each of us has a story to tell and we are traveling our personal road of transformation. Taking part in another’s dream or conflict or unresolved past is a deeper way of listening, a deeper way of being present. The reward for such deep listening is the incredible honor of witnessing a living model of human courage and then finding comfort and healing in the surprise that our stories are really the same.

Listening to another’s story somehow gives us the strength of example to carry on, as well as showing us aspects of ourselves we can’t easily see. Listening to the stories of others and the cries of their hearts is a kind of water that breaks the fever of our isolation. If we listen closely enough, we are soothed into remembering our common name.

I believe that when we express our truth, it releases light and warmth. I believe it is the way our spirit shines. These essay writers are my medicine. And I am theirs. We are members of a broken whole. And we will heal…a stitch, a song, a cry at a time.