I have mentioned Leonard Cohen many times over the years. There’s no denying he was a gifted writer and an able performer. Neither is there any denying that my knowledge of him barely scratches the outermost point of the surface of his life. He wrote with, and seemingly lived, passion.
One of his songs “COME HEALING” has to be rooted somewhere very deeply in his desire for that healing. He knows the benefits healing can bring and speaks to it wonderfully. Yet, it’s likely, the same healing eluded him for much of his life. He spoke one time about the day his father was buried – he was very young at the time – and was puzzled by this idea of his father going into the ground. Returning home after the funeral, he went to his father’s room and took out one of his bow ties. He cut a piece from it and buried it in the garden of their home. He said that he often felt the rest of his life was trying to remember where he buried it and what exactly he buried.
He speaks too, in the song “Come Healing” about the cross and the pain it brings to life. More than that, he speaks of the cross having been left down but the splinters carried, bring their share of pain.
Ideally it seems, cross and splinters should be left behind.
Lenten thought: what can we do today to leave behind the cross and their splinters? I know it’s not easy and a struggle but surely it’s worth thinking about …..