Parenting During Chaotic Times - from Jean Val Jean himself
Musicals have always been in my blood and marrow. I watched so much of life finally make sense in musicals. My absolute favorite musical as a child was Les Miserables (and we can get into all the reasons why that is problematic another time 🙃).
Musicals have always been my window to the world.
As an introverted and intuitive young girl, I often watched stories rather than participated in them. One of my favorites of all time was Les Miserables.
One of the songs that I loved even then but couldn’t understand was the song “Bring Him Home” sung by Jean Val Jean, a man who has always been running from his past.
He’s singing about his pseudo son-in-law, Marius, a French-revolutionary, who’s about to be called up and who his daughter had essentially just fallen in love with…it’s definitely a drama.
In the song, Jean is also about to join the revolutionaries and is pleading with God to let him die instead of Marius.
The first verse of the song goes:
“God on high, hear my prayer.
In my need, you have always been there.
He is young, he’s afraid,
let him rest, heaven blessed.
Bring him home,
bring him home
bring him home.”
This initial verse is haunting, to say the least.
And yet, the second verse is, even more, if you can believe it.
Jean says,
“He’s like the son I might have known,
if God had granted me a son.
The summers die one by one,
how soon they fly, on and on.
And I am old, and will be gone.
Bring him peace, bring him joy,
he is young, he is only a boy.
You can take, you can give,
let him be, let him live.
If I die, let me die,
let him live.
Let him live.
Bring him home.”
Whew.
Honestly, the air goes out of my lungs and my heart folds in on itself, almost.
This level of fear, this begging for the life of a son is crushing to me.
So I ask myself,
How can a parent even hear that? What do they feel?
I can’t even imagine the pain and fear someone must feel begging for the life of someone they love to be spared.
And also this song lands in my bones, because I look around and see myself and all the other adults around me praying this over the next generation, frequently.
We are wringing our hands as we beg the universe, “Please please please let our babies survive this. Take me if you have to, but leave them alone. I’m begging you.”
But guess what, mama:
I can’t speak for every adult. But I will speak for most our generation:
We are tired of this shit, and we do not want these modern perils the US government has instilled in our system and inflicted on our souls.
Oo, girl. I can almost hear you.
“Okay, slow down meg, why are you putting this on you business page? For your therapy practice??” I know, seems kinda almost pretty inappropriate, right?
No. Here’s why not:
It belongs on my therapy business page because it shows up in my therapy practice. Every. Day.
I talk about these issues, Every. Dang. Day.
My clients, every therapist’s clients, are bringing it into the room.
You need to know:
You are not alone in this fear for your babies world. We all are trying to fix this together and you are not the only one afraid and up at night. We are all trying to make the world a safer place. You. Are. Not. Alone.
A generational theft and grift has been happening since we were children and we know it. We aren’t even willing to argue about it anymore, we know it to be true.
And for the most part, we have been doing the work to know ourselves well enough so we can get out of this mess, and see if we are getting in the way of our kids' (collectively speaking, as well) needs, when needed.
So, what can Jean Val Jean teach us about love and parenting?
He teaches us that after we know something to be true, we act like it.
Spoiler Alert: The next part of the story is that Jean Val Jean does in fact find Marius, wounded, and saves his life.
In the small way Jean can help, he does.
He, basically, becomes the answer to his own prayer. He asked to bring Marius home, and then Jean makes himself available to have this happen. If you know something is true, make yourself available to help it become what the world needs.
We learn from him that love is the answer, time and again.
We see from him that love shows up and makes itself available.
We see love in prayer to Jean’s god,
and then we see love in action
when Jean shows up to make himself available.
You want to show love? Show up and be available.
Start with showing up for loving others and making yourself available.
That’s basically all Marius needed here.
That’s really all most people need in most cases. When you are asked to act, act.
When your god or your universal knowing or your deep truth asks you to show up, show up.
And then when your intuition says she needs you to move, you move.
Love makes itself available by showing up for the hard and scary parts that it may not feel prepared for.
In one of next posts, we will get into the nitty gritty of how to do this. But today, just practice trying to stay available when you feel a tug from your intuition.
If you’re open, I’d love to hear from you in the comments. What are your thoughts? Where do you find yourself asking the universe for help, and where are you showing up in small ways?
Share some of your favorite ways to know your gut is telling you to move in the comments. I’ll read and respond to every single one, promise.If you want to learn how to actually hear your intuition speak to you, schedule a consultation with me to see if we’re a good fit and I’ll make sure we get your clear line of communication going for you.
See yall next time.