To heal is to grieve

All of us will experience the portal of grief. Buddhism reminds us that we are of the nature to lose everyone and everything that we love. Whether it’s sudden and unexpected, or a slow steady slipping away, the pain that comes with integrating loss, is a deeply transformative experience.

Grief is the bittersweet process of healing, It’s the in between space of reckoning with what we love, what we long for, what we didn’t get, what is lost to us. It’s the disorientation and turning upside down, crying on the floor with the deepest love and sorrow, it’s feeling alone even while being supported by your community, it’s feeling presence in the bird that catches your eye.

Grief asks of us to slow down, to protect this sacred time, and not return to the normal, mundane acts of life too soon. Similar to how we treat a concussion or traumatic brain injury, the heart needs time, tenderness, and care. When we give grief our awareness and attention, it moves through us, alchemizing and reorienting our consciousness and hearts.