GRATITUDE and GRIEF
"Grief is praise, because it is the natural way love honors what it misses."
Martin Prechtel
"... grief is essential in order to integrate on a deep level the reality of the situation we face. Otherwise it remains ... theoretical."
Michael Mielke
Martin Prechtel
"... grief is essential in order to integrate on a deep level the reality of the situation we face. Otherwise it remains ... theoretical."
Michael Mielke
SANGHA
Thank you for this space, to be ourselves, together. Thank you for the silence to hear our individual hearts beat, together. Thank you for the listening that arises from Here. Thank you for this space to allow tears of grief to gather with tears of joy and flow together in this ocean of our being. Thank us for holding this Space together. Thank us for letting go of judgment, dissolving barriers, opening up, so, there is a safe place for all, Here. Here together there is even space for the mountains, the rivers, and the sunrise too. Here is a place for all to let worry, and doubt, swirl with courage and faith, in the wind’s breath of change. Thanks to the earth who has provided this place, this space to be held, and to hold Thanks to those who walked here before us May they embrace us too as we learn what it means to be Here Together. Suzy Loeffler |
Outside of Us
What does it mean to be out of body? Out of mind? Outside in the cool January air? Outside in the fog? There are lots of judgements about out: outsider, outlander, out in the open is good, out of the closet is dangerous. Nothing like an out of mind experience to really shake things up and scare your neighbors. Outside in the wilderness searching for nurture, validation or some deeper truth that refuses to reveal itself indoors. Out of bounds and over the line, Way outside the so-called normal a new normal awaits. Will it be hunger, violence, and early death in hot smoke-filled air? Or will it be a great disillusionment, when all conditioning unravels, and our hearts sing together? Stuck It’s coming whether we will or not Stop The reefs are dying fast Judgement The glaciers faster Hate After millions of years, human life and glacial life arriving at a similar timeframe Don’t listen Does this symbolize a nearing of the end of human history? Don’t believe I’ll just have to sit here You never will, you are broken, powerless Forget it, don’t try, hide instead It is imperative Get outside! Relish slanting January sun in my hair With my feet resting On living soil, rocky and brownish tan Covering unseen roots and offering a playground to an ant One earth, one now, one us. Sarah Mussulman |
Two Types of Grief
One: Ugly pus-filled old dirty wound grief
Grief is not eating, not singing
Grief is a dull stifled ache
Grief is failure to notice purple dawn sky scattered with quilt clouds
Grief is manipulation, begging for attention, a type of showing-off And not-grief is failure – healthy people grieve
Two: Clean incision grief
Grief is stomach-hurting breathless snotty tears
Grief is a wall and occasionally I chink out a brick and peek through
Grief is a cave,
deep
private
infinite
Where a sub-terrestrial river nourishes the roots of my tree
Sarah Mussulman
River
What if I told you A river of goodness flows deep inside me, Within the walls of a steep-sided canyon where a riot of lush greenness clings And wild birds make their homes, filling tight spaces with raucous cries Belonging to this particular place – just as they belong to each other? My own Nile, flooding my heart each winter and restoring rich fertile soil for each sunny summer day to reclaim. Would you scorn me for being tender and vulnerable? Silly and illogical? Would you deride me for believing that all beings are fundamentally and deeply connected, a natural product of four billion years on Earth – blasting me with a contempt so sharp and so hot it wrings all the water from my skin? Scorching me for being exposed in this way. Grasping me with both arms and Shoving my body into the fire without Once acknowledging That the same river flows inside you. Or would you say to me “That makes no sense. A canyon doesn’t have a flood plain.”? And laugh with me in friendship. Would you feel the empowered nourishing resilience of this water? Would you recognize its clarity even while filled with silt and stones? Would you join me in a tumbling canyon descent, in full awareness That the same river flows inside you. Sarah Mussulman |