Grief, like life and death, is a doorway through which we must all pass. Who we were and the person that comes through the other side, is never one and the same. Grief changes us. It strips away our very idea of Self, who we thought we were, or knew ourselves to be. Grief is a doorway of continuous unbecoming and becoming until only what it eternal survives.

Grief breaks open the human heart again and again. It is this breaking apart that moves us beyond our limitations. I would be lying if I said it was easy. It is excruciating. Grief is not something we can outrun, nor hide from. Grief is a human condition. One day it will pass through all of us. How will we meet it? Will we hold too tightly to it for fear it is all we have left of what we love? Or will we let it sweep through us like a great fire feeding on the pain, so that we may remember to rise out of our own ashes again and again?

The bravest people I know have been stripped and enveloped by grief. They learned to withstand. They are not less than because of their grief, they are more. More open. More brave. More vulnerable, and this is where the strength moves in. They are more willing to take chances. More willing to speak from the heart. More willing to try, face, and befriend the unknown. More willing to believe in what is possible. More present in each moment. More alive. More compassionate. More empathetic. More human.

Only the brave dare enter the portal of grief. Our senses become much more acute as grief moves through us. We begin to see with eyes that have been washed clear by the rivers of tears. We taste from the well of our own infinite nature. We allow ourselves to become enveloped by the grace of the love that is always there if we allow it to hold us. We once again remember to enter into conversation with the world around us as we did when we were young. It is always speaking to and through us. Grief teaches us the value of the seemingly mundane. The hug. The talk. The walk together. The rise and fall of our unified breath. Bearing witness to it all, knowing that everything is in continuous change and constant evolution. We are in a perpetual state of becoming and grief allows us to see the seemingly ordinary as the truly divine.

Lessons From Grief

We are all grieving

For what has been lost,

And for all that will never be.

We are grieving in solitude

Individually and collectively.

We have been taught to silence our grief

We fear that grief shared

Is grief multiplied. 

Tell me of yours and I will tell you of mine. 

Speak it out loud 

It is the only way to survive.

 

One day we will each grieve

Someone we love,

Something we miss,

A part of us that is dying

So that we may exist. 

 

Our bodies,

Our loved ones,

The standing stones,

And the fallen trees,

The Earth nourishes, grieves and receives. 

 

Do not imprison grief.

Let the winds carry it,

Let the fire cleanse it,

Let the water soothe it,

Let nature hold and heal it. 

 

Grief is not our enemy.

Grief is simply love displaced. 

The reminder that hope once lived here,

And rises still.