Week 4

• Reading Resource: My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem (Intro or Chapter 1 on "Your Body and Blood"). Menakem shows that trauma isn't just a thought—it's a physical weight held in our muscles and nerves. This means when Paul and Silas sang in prison, they weren't just being positive; they were physically using their voices to release stress and calm their bodies from the inside out.

• Core Truth: Joy is a spiritual discipline that protects my soul in difficult seasons.

• The Inside-Out Shift: Moving from being a victim of circumstances to being a steward of my internal atmosphere.

• The Practice: Put on a song that moves you and sing or hum along, even if you don't feel "joyful." Treat the music as a protective wall for your spirit.

• Reflection: How can "singing in the dark" protect your soul from the things that try to own it?

• Breath Prayer: Inhale: My soul is free... Exhale: ...even here.

The Thing Is

by Ellen Bass

to love life, to love it even

when you have no stomach for it

and everything you’ve held dear

crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,

your throat filled with the silt of it.

When grief sits with you, its tropical heat

thickening the air, heavy as water

more fit for gills than lungs;

when grief weights you down like your own flesh

only more of it, an obesity of grief,

you think, How can a body withstand this?

Then you hold life like a face

between your palms, a plain face,

no charming smile, no violet eyes,

and you say, yes, I will take you

I will love you, again.