By Lynne Goldklang
Grief is an intense missing, longing, wanting, yearning for what can never be.
Grief is loss so profound that relief is impossible, undesirable — an insult to love lost.
Grief is forever and healing an illusion of optimistic folly.
Grief is the vulture that attacks without mercy.
The moments of your life are muted
You cannot hear the music or see the rainbow.
Sunshine is dulled by shadow
Moonlight does not illuminate the darkness
You drink the darkness black.
Grief is the thief of life’s sweetness
The escort of death and pain
The barren land of the soul where nothing grows, not ever.
Yet as these words meld into your loss and sorrow
You might sense a shift, a longing for relief.
You hear the sound of your heart beating, the feel of your lungs inhaling air
The tiny spark of your eternal light slowly gaining strength.
You can feel an aching need for comfort
Your arms want to touch, hug, reach out.
Your essence, your deepest self grasps at living
While your mind cannot conceive of a new life.
There are no answers but questions assault you
An insistent wondering how to live in the landscape where death has reigned.
You cannot silence the life force that demands to be heard, felt, acknowledged
Your feet keep moving over the jagged rocks that smother the once gentle path.
The forces of darkness are making space for slivers of light.
Where your grief leads is a mystery.
Where courage takes root will be the discovery.
Life calls and you don’t hang up
You hang on.
You walk with grief but do not hold hands.
You stay on the journey and where it goes becomes the blessing.