Seamus Heaney wrote an an anthem to describe the human heart’s longing for justice.

In the last lines of the poem you find these words.– from the poem “The Cure at Troy”  (see below)

“That means someone is hearing
The outcry and the birth-cry’

This is a lovely job description for an advocate.  While we certainly yearn for systemic changes that  improve the common good on a global scale, usually we end up being spectators to lofty ideas of justice. Read the full poem below to find those aspirations. 

To jump into the mess of advocacy it means one person tuning in deeply to an OUTCRY and

a BIRTH CRY.

In listening to others we have the honor of hearing pain that is too deep for words. It may be sighing in the most heavy hearted way.  It may be an outcry of pain long buried that is showing up as PTSD.

ADVOCACY– A STORY OF QUAIL SHOES

An advocate knows WHEN they have been invited to stand on holy ground. Due to broken trust, an advocate knows this trust- ridden invitation most likely will only come once. It always makes your heart jump to its most alert level of listening and compassion.

I believe that if you are open to being an advocate you accept the calling to tell someone having very young feelings that you plan to bring all of the fidelity, maturity and wisdom you have as an adult to sort things out with them.

QUAIL BABIES

Once I was an advocate on the first day of life for two quail babies.  In May of 2018 my husband and I set up a great environment (i.e. the temperature and the rotation) for about 25 quail eggs to grow and eventually hatch.  We started with thirty and on hatching day about twenty five broke through the tough shell with their tiny black beaks.  Soon we noticed that one or two had toes that had not spread apart.  This is a big handicap for a chick because they would not be able to grasp the chicken wire floor of a johnny house.  It would render them unable to walk in a steady way or scurry away if in danger. After all, even a healthy adult quail can only elevate for ten seconds and rise only about six feet in the air.

I knew their lives would be tortured by the healthy in the brood and short. If they survived to adulthood any animal of prey could catch up to them easily. 

RESEARCH

It took some digging but I found a way to make custom shoes for baby chicks.  Oh, how I wanted to advocate for the wounded baby. I know she felt awful when she looked down at her feet!

Research led to Advocacy

Note: I feel obliged to say “inquiring minds want to know” how one might cobble new shoes for a tiny creature like this.

I learned on-line that a tiny triangle of the plastic from a cottage cheese lid and scotch tape could hold the toes open for a day.  That time frame is all that is needed to get the premature cartilage of the feet to harden up and keep the toes splayed out like the good Lord intended them to be.  (see the pic above) .

SO WHAT?

I share this because in the case of that little quail I practiced what I could do.  I was as an advocate where I live. 

As you listen to trauma you are a fair witness when new beliefs can be adopted in the place formerly occupied by distortions.  The BIRTH CRY is so important.

So is the OUTCRY.  You are hearing the shock that justice was not operative during a horrible event.  You are able to stand with the victim of trauma and believe that they are worth the time it takes to heal from the wounds.

You are the champion on their talking day.   This is what being an advocate means.

As you read “The Cure At Troy” Notice how Heaney gathers up our hopes for global justice.  We pray, especially during this time of division for our nation, that the sound of a rhyme rings out on a future day. But in the midst of these global concern we are speaking here about one- to -one advocacy.

From “The Cure at Troy”

Human beings suffer.
they torture one another.
They get hurt and get hard.
History says, Don’t hope
On this side of the grave,
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed for
tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that a farther shore Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
And cures and healing wells.

Call miracle self-healing:


The utter, self-revealing


Double-take of feeling.


If there’s fire on the mountain


And lightning and storm


And a god speaks from the sky

That means someone is hearing


The outcry and the birth-cry


Of new life at its term.


It means once in a lifetime


That justice can rise up


And hope and history rhyme.

Seamus Heaney