Ancestors Speak – Healing Grief

“I am the gentle autumn rain” ~ picture from Freefoto.com

 

 

 

Generally, we associate grief with the death of a loved person or pet.  For some reason, and it is different for each of us, we feel angry that the person/pet had to die at this time.  At some point, many of us are angry at God for allowing the disease or illness or even age to take the object of our grief.  And with our grief, we internalize it, until, one day, it simply needs to come out.  The release happens by way of tears.

I was at a funeral recently where this poem was in the program, and I found that these words helped me heal some grief that I felt.  For some reason, thinking that the person would become an active part of nature gave me solace. Our Ancestors have known this for centuries.

NATIVE AMERICAN PRAYER

I give you this one thought to keep --I am with you still – I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,I am the diamond glints on snow,

I am the sunlight on ripened grain, I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning’s hush, I am the swift, uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night. Do not think of me as gone – I am with you still – in each new dawn

                     Author Unknown

Sometimes, we just need to sit in a quiet place and let the grief come out of us.  What if, however, the grief is for a different reason than loss of life?  What if it is a personal grief over the loss of a job, or lover or whatever?  Grief is a mental or mind activity.  In the book, “The Buddha and The Way To Happiness” by Tien Cong Tran, Ph.D., one finds the Buddhist definition for grief on Page 44.  It reads, “GRIEF: “And what, bhikkhus, is grief? Whatever mental painful feeling, mental unpleasant feeling, painful or unpleasant sensation results from mental contact, – that is called grief.””

The meaning of this passage, seems to me to say that grief is what we make it.  The opposite than is that we can unmake grief. While that may be true, it is very much an individual action.  Just as each of us will heal a cut on our body in different ways and times, each of us will heal our grief differently.

I know that I am still grieving – it just does not hurt quite so much. 

Judy@angelsandancestors.com