Meditation on Grief

 Meditation on Grief

I posted this on social media years ago and a friend reminded me of this last week. It's still relevant. It will always be relevant. 

“Grief is so individually expressed, so uniquely experienced, that we have no capacity to experience another's pain. Sadness rooted in painful memories, triggered by anniversaries, are reminders merely of the passage of time, not of ability or desire to cope with the pain. There is no balm that can be applied or received from afar that will magically assuage our grief, eliminate the pain, or speed up its passage. Grief lives like a tree, growing at its own pace, fruiting and leafing at its own pace until one day a branch rots and leaves drop. Then on another day, perhaps distant in time, or sooner than expected, another branch breaks. The tree has fewer branches, fewer leaves, less fruit. The tree still lives but in a diminished capacity, it no longer takes the same amount of time to rake up the leaves in Fall. Even if this tree were to fall over in a hurricane, the wood would still be on the ground. The rotten carcass of grief slowly absorbed into the dirt. It might take a lifetime for that grief to disappear, or it might take a little less.”