Grief is not a river

Whether you are grief -tending, grieving or finding yourself bewildered by the rapid changes of energy, consciousness, attitudes and behavior; I offer you the following poem as a gentle reminder of the power of present moment awareness.

My father died in 2004 after a long battle with addiction and a short battle with the physical results. I was with him when he moved out of his body on an unusually cold and rainy morning in July, his sister and I remarked how fitting the weather was as we stepped out of the hospital and into a world that was a new place. 

The shifts in time and other perceptions were almost psychedelic over the coming days, weeks and months as my body, mind and spirit re-organized around a way of living without my father's physical presence in the world. My grief did not begin that day and is not singularly tied to the death of my father, but that event sparked an intimate relationship with the land of grief. I learned chiefly that  grief is outside of linear time and predictable patterns. Grief is a thread in the tapestry of life that holds light here, darkness there, always urging towards the FLOW of Aliveness.

Grief is not a river to cross

or a mountain to conquer.

Grief is a land to call Home

a Home. Calling us to land in our heart.

Grief is the land where feet blend into the soft mud and sand,  caressed by sweet grass and the gentle rhythm of the tides

rolling in

rolling out

Like the waves of breath though our bodies

In

Pause

Out

Pause

Grief is the land where our feet and heart are NOW, where the heart opens and weeps for the sweetness of Aliveness.

Grief is not a river or sea to cross,

nor a mountain to conquer.

Grief is the homeland where we find ourselves NOW.