Grief is not just emotional; it holds physical presence and is stored in our cellular memory. Grief can be personal like losing my dog, and global from the earthquake. Whatever the circumstance, grief presents an invitation into Spirit, where it can serve as the leaving or the coming back. The great blessing of the time I put into my practice in a space of joy is that contemplation is where I find safety and faith. The task of grief guides me back to Source.
As awkward, painful and crazy as grief may feel, grief is natural. There is nothing wrong with me. I am not depressed. It is not necessary to find meaning in the loss itself. There is pain and compression in the transformation of some part of my identity. The character of my heart is unstruck.
New grief remembers and triggers old grief. Repression escalates the severity of the new grief. Ending pain is not a strategy. Normalize tears, tiredness, anxiousness, anger, frustration, disbelief, helplessness, or any other component of mourning.
Depending on the circumstances of who or what is lost, grief differs in intensity. My grief cannot be compared to another, but can unite me to them. Personal grief sent me into social isolation. Global trauma expands my heart. It is from grief that I first learned and continue to relearn to connect to myself through the lens of others and to co-exist with compassion.
Grief is a prayer.
Peace and Healing to Turkey and Syria,
Megan
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