Image via WikipediaLast night, I accepted a solemn responsibility.As I lay quietly on my couch in my sacred space, about to rise after listening, I was told to accept it before I placed my feet on the ground.
The responsibility was clear.
I accepted it without question and found joy in taking it on.
The solemnity was not clear.
How could I find joy in something solemn?
The modern definition of solemn connects it with sadness; a solemn occasion or attitude is grave, serious, joyless, with secondary meanings of dignified or formal.
But the Latin root of solemn, sollemnis, does not exclude joy. It means formal, ceremonial, traditional, and such occasions can be sad or joyful.
Things became clearer when I saw that sollemnis may be linked to sollus, which means whole.
I could not ignore the sound pairing of sollus and solace (though the roots differ), or the power of tradition and formal ceremony to bring solace and comfort, to restore wholeness to a family, group, or community after loss.
The joy of healing.
I began to understand I was being asked to fill a traditional and customary role, which accounted for the rightness. And I started to feel the the serious beauty of solemn, the coexistence of joy and sadness in the ultimate comfort of love.
