This week Uma Girish and I recorded my first video episode of Chewing Over The Bones. This is the beginning of a series of short conversations exploring the territory of wisdom and insight and the places where we find it. Uma and I have been walking together this past month in conversation about grief and also about life. Her newsletter The Human Divine Journey is well worth a read as is her blog.
One of the insights that Uma mentions is that through mourning her mother’s death she realised that “grief is not the enemy.” She calls it “sister grief” and in looking back through my own grief journal I found a prose poem that I had written and forgotten. Or rather that “sister grief” had written to me. I offer it to you here for anyone that needs to hear it right now.
A Sabbatical for a Grieving Soul
Do not bury me in the practicalities of dealing with it all.
Don’t swallow me down with cake, or a G&T.
I’m not here to haunt or taunt you.
Let me walk beside you and hold your hand.
Let me hold you when your sobs feel out of control.
Let the tears flow and I’ll catch them in my pocket of hankies.
Breathe with me - deep breaths,
Fill your lungs with my peace,
Fill your heart with my love.
I am here to help you transcend death,
To walk in the light of love,
Even, especially, when there seems only to be darkness.
Let me be the wind that ruffles your hair on a breezy day.
Let me be the stars, pinprick sharp, twinkling in the blackest night.
Let me stand with you in a field watching the clouds race across the sky.
I am beauty, not the beast.
I am your friend, not your foe.
I am sadness but also joy; the joy of a life well lived, no matter how short.
Find in me the miracle of existence, with all its radiant impermanence.
Here is my conversation with Uma, I hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed recording it. If you have wisdom to share and would like to record a conversation with me for the Chewing Over The Bones series, then get in touch. I’m planning to build a Library of Inspiration for Hungry Souls on my new website (in progress, not yet published) and the ‘Bones’ video series will be part of that.
Until next time… with love from my soul to yours
THANK YOU ~ I loved the thoughtful insights here Tina and Uma. I meet other peoples grief almost every day, sometimes you can feel it tearing them apart before your very eyes because they are not ready to acknowledge its presence and validate its purpose. I have shared this with my Celebrant colleagues on our Membership FB page and I am sure it will strike a chord, and resonate with many of them.