Grandmother Pinon’s Bark Hearts
Grief is not a disorder, a disease or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, physical and spiritual necessity, the price you pay for love. The only cure for grief is to grieve. Rabbi Earl A. Grollman
One of the most exciting and energizing forms of thought is the question. I always think that the question is like a lantern. It illuminates new landscapes and new areas as it moves. John O’Donohue
Gratitude is a match to light lanterns on the path of life.
I’ve experienced a week riding diverse and sometimes challenging waves in the ocean of life. I feel blessed to be in this place, this life at this tumultuous time on the planet. Blessed to live somewhat isolated from the horrors of war. Grateful to be at choice in my daily activities rather than being in survival mode, whether on the hamster wheel of commitments or uprooted by violence or extreme weather events. Grateful to be relatively safe and secure while knowing that too can change in an instant.
I’m blessed that the tumultuous waves in the ocean of my life offer up opportunities for deeper reflection, exploring questions with wonder not with the necessity that requires an answer. Grateful that the adventurer in me is excited by these new landscapes and inner terrains and that I experience the luxury of riding these waves, whether they be waves of grief or waves of joy.
I rode both this week, waking one morning to deep grief that carried me into the darkness of current world conditions. I felt deep sadness for all beings who reside in the paths of violence and upheaval in their many forms. I shed tears, crying deeply for all. I grieved over my country which seems to be operating far from the principles and values declared in its founding documents, aware of the many grievances I hold about the choices of our leaders and the injustices of our systems.
I grieved over agricultural practices at home and abroad that destroy the soil and poison ‘we the people’ and our planet home. Grief and grievances.
I wept for friends faced with serious health problems and other challenges. And I rode waves of grief for Zadie Byrd’s declining health and the reality that this sweet canine may be near to begin making her path to the rainbow bridge.
Choosing to ride the waves rather than to exit the ocean allowed the grief to move through me and to inform me rather than to take up residence and negatively impact my health. Riding the waves with gratitude rather than resistance opened new territory for exploration, reminding me what I value in life and by what values I aim to live. I opened to deepening my faith and my trust as consciousness (mine, yours, and ours) shifts and the Universe continues to unfold.
Out of the waves of grief questions rose. Questions that feed curiosity and wonder. Questions that may or may not be answered. Questions that hold the potential to light my way. As if to remind me that the ocean is a vast array of waves, by week’s end waves of possibility and joy began to roll in bringing curiosity, wonder, light, new possibilities, and yes, more questions.
I sense this is the nature of the times we are in and the events that are being experienced, individually and collectively. Riding the waves of life with gratitude and some sense that there is order and purpose that often isn’t visible may be path to building our capacity to navigate all that is unknown and uncertain in our world.
Grab your lanterns and your boards. Let’s ride!
Home of the Faeries in the Woods Out Back