Grief Rookie

"On days when the sky is grey, the sun has not disappeared forever."  -Arnaud Desjardins

"In this world of change, nothing which comes stays, and nothing which goes is lost."            -Anne Sophie Swetchine

"Grief is the rope burns left behind when what we have held to most dearly is pulled out of reach, beyond our grasp." - Stephen Levine

“Something holy happens when we’re strong enough to turn and face the tears we’ve held inside. It creates a space inside us that we can honorably fill with joy, once our tears have all been wept out completely.”  -Jack Kornfield

"The soul always knows what to do to heal. The challenge is to silence the mind."                -Caroline Myss

"When you get to the end of all the light you know and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly." -Edward Teller

"You will lose someone you can't live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn't seal back up. And you come through. It's like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly - that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you eventually learn to dance the with limp." -Anne Lamott

"Grief is that uneasy perch where the heart is forced to rest with no escape, no bridge, no door. Just one way through - time. Rooted in pain, but winged on hope." -Rev. Liz Walker

"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore."    -Andre Gide

"If there is a single definition of healing, it is to enter with mercy and awareness those pains, mental and physical, from which we have withdrawn in judgement and dismay."         -Stephen Levine

"I do not understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us." -Anne Lamott

Gone From My Sight  -Henry Van Dyke

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side,
spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts
for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck
of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says, "There, she is gone."

Gone where?

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,
hull and spar as she was when she left my side.
And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me -- not in her.
And, just at the moment when someone says, "There, she is gone,"
there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices
ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes!"

And that is dying...

death comes
always too soon
asking us to trust
in a master plan we can't see

words fail us
grief overwhelms us
everything changes
love remains

life reveals itself
time heals an aching heart
the mystery unfolds

 - Emily Janowsky, 2013

The Guest House  -Rumi

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

The Uses of Sorrow - Mary Oliver

(In my sleep I dreamed this poem)

Someone I loved once gave me
a box full of darkness.

It took me years to understand
that this, too, was a gift.