A Gentle Heart, and the Courage to Protect It

Creator, help me walk with a gentle heart and the courage to protect it.

When I took this photograph, I saw an eagle with a swan within it. The clouds stretched like wings across the sky, while the light held the shape of something gentle.

As I sit with this image, I find a teaching about strength and tenderness. About keeping my heart open while learning to protect it.

One of the painful parts of my healing has been learning to hear Creator’s voice beneath the voices of people who spoke in His name. When someone says, “God says,” it can carry so much weight. Especially when you want to walk in a good way. You want to be loving, faithful, and willing to learn. But when those words are used to dismiss your pain or demand your silence, you can begin questioning your own heart.

You wonder whether saying no makes you unkind. Whether leaving makes you unforgiving. Whether protecting yourself means you have somehow failed Creator.

I know that struggle.

My heart needs care, too

There have been times when I needed someone to hear my hurt, and the response was, “Pray for them.”

I believe in prayer. I know what it means to bring someone before Kitchi Manitou. But in those moments, I needed room for my own heart to be held, too.
I needed someone to ask, “What happened to you? How are you feeling? What do you need?”
Being able to say, “That hurt me,” matters. 

When we acknowledge what hurts within ourselves, we begin to make room for healing. We cannot do that honestly if we are afraid that speaking will make us less faithful.

Spiritual abuse can reach into that fear. When faith is used to control someone, the wound can affect their relationship with Creator as well as their trust in people.
For me, healing means making room for questions. It means looking carefully at what I have been told and how it has affected my spirit.

Learning to trust again

When I read about Jesus moving toward wounded people and confronting hypocrisy, I find room to bring my own pain forward. I do not have to hide it to be worthy of care.

I am learning that I can love Kitchi Manitou and question what someone claims in His name. I can forgive someone and still choose distance. I can pray for them and say, “You do not get to treat me this way.” These are things I am learning to carry together.
My gentleness is precious to me. I want to keep finding beauty, offering love, and seeing teachings in the world around me. I also want to honour the part of me that recognizes when something hurts.

That part of my heart deserves a voice.

The eagle and the swan
In this photograph, I see strength making room for tenderness.

That is the meaning this image holds for me. The eagle and the swan remind me that courage and gentleness can live within the same heart. Sometimes courage is speaking honestly. Sometimes it is closing a door. Sometimes it is allowing someone trustworthy to sit beside us while we find our words.

I am still learning. Still listening. Still finding my way toward a relationship with Creator where I can bring my whole heart, including the hurt, the anger, and the questions.

And this is my prayer:
Creator, help me recognize Your voice beneath all the voices I have carried. Help me speak honestly about what hurts. Teach me to walk with a gentle heart and the courage to protect it.

— Waubshki Migisi
from the heart of Loon + Sturgeon 🪶