Blessed are those who suffer 
For they know life.”  

Ideally, a human life should be a constant pilgrimage  
of discovery. The most exciting discoveries 
happen at the frontiers. When you come to know something new 
you come closer to yourself and to the world. 
Discovery enlarges and refines your sensibility. 
When you discover something, 
you transfigure some of the forsakenness of the world.” 
John O'Donahue, Eternal Echoes

You don’t know why it’s such a far cry
From the world this world could be
You don’t know why but you still try
For the world you wish to see
You don’t know how it will happen now
After all that’s come undone
But you know the change the world needs now
Is there, in everyone.”
Jackson Browne, Standing in the Breach

And though the earth may tremble and the oceans pitch and rise
We will all assemble and we will lift our eyes
To the tasks that we know lie before us
And the power our prayers beseech
And cast our souls into the heavens, standing in the breach
...
But you know the change the world needs now
Is there, in everyone.”
Jackson Browne, Standing in the Breach

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the /
conversation. The kettle is singing / even as it pours you a
drink, the cooking pots / have left their arrogant aloofness
and / seen the good in you at last. All the birds / and
creatures of the world are unutterably / themselves.
Everything is waiting for you.”
David Whyte

Remember the Bible ends in Revelations, not conclusions, and graduations are commencements not terminations.”
Bernie S. Siegel, M.D.

If there is a single definition of healing 
it is to enter with mercy and awareness 
those pains, mental and physical,  
from which we have withdrawn 
in judgement and dismay.” 
Stephen Levine, A Year to Live

She stood in the storm 
and when the wind did not blow her away, 
she adjusted her sails.” 
Elizabeth Edwards 

~Rick Moranis

“Once I shot an Iguana.
I thought that I should be able to make some pretty things
from his skin. A strange thing happened then,
that I have never afterwards forgotten.
As I went up to him, where he was lying dead upon his stone,
and actually, while I was walking the few steps, 
he faded and grew pale, all colour died out of him
as in one long sigh, and by the time that I touched him
he was grey and dull like a lump of concrete.
It was the live impetuous blood pulsating within the animal
which had radiated out all that glow and splendor.
Now that flame was put out, and the soul had flown,
the Iguana was as dead as a sandbag.”

~​Isak Dinesen, Out of Africa

Then all the beasts that walk on the ground
Danced in a circle round and round,
And all the birds that fly in the air
Flew round and round in a circle there,
And all the fish in the Jellybolee
Swum in a circle about the sea,
And all the insects that creep or go
Buzzed in a circle to and fro.
And they roared and sang and whistled and cried
Till the noise was heard from side to side,
“Chippetty tip! Chippetty tip!
It’s only name is the Scroobious Pip!”

Edward Lear's "The Scroobious Pip"

If we were not so single minded
about keeping our lives moving, 
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence 
might interrupt this sadness 
of never understanding ourselves 
And of threatening ourselves with death.
​Perhaps the earth can teach us 
as when everything seems dead 
and later proves to be alive.” 

Keeping Quiet 
By Pablo Neruda

You won’t remember how you made it through,
how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure,
in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain,
when you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same
person who walked in.”

~Haruki Murakami, Kafka On The Shore

Put down whatever you
might be holding.
Find a position that’s comfortable
and supports you.
Listen carefully.
If these words resonate, let them
enter into your experience.
Bring your own experience
and your own language
to this meditation.
Remember why you are here.
Bring your attention to your breath.
Let the breath sweep your mind:
and notice whether it’s
a deep breath or shallow.
Recall for a moment
a loss or losses
that have touched you.
Or the anticipation of loss.
Here are some simple phrases
around the truth of grief:
May I be open to the pain of grief.
Notice whatever comes up
not rejecting it, not clinging to it.
May I be open to the sorrow,
to the pain of grief.
May I find the inner resources
to really be present for my sorrow.
May I find the inner resources
to really be present for my sorrow.
Notice any judgement
or resistance that arises.
It will pass.
May I accept my sadness
knowing that I am not my sadness.
May I accept my sadness
knowing that I am not my sadness.
If you’ve cared for someone
and felt like it wasn’t always so easy,
reflect on this phrase:
May I forgive myself for not meeting
my loved one’s needs.
May I forgive myself
For not always being able
To meet my loved one’s needs.
May I forgive myself
for mistakes made
and things left undone.
May I forgive myself for mistakes made
and things left undone.
May I be open to receive
the kindness of others as they
support me in this journey of grief.
May I and all beings
learn from and transform sorrow.
May I and all beings
learn from and transform sorrow.
Notice whatever is arising for you;
whatever thoughts are present.
Do not cling to them.
Notice whatever you’re feeling
in your heart
or how your body feels.
Consider the possibility
that grief can be a profoundly
humanizing experience
and bring greater depth into our lives.”

It’s not a question of getting over it or healing. No;
 it’s a question of learning to live with this transformation.
For the loss is transformative, in good ways and bad,
a tangle of change
that cannot be threaded into the usual narrative spools.
It is too central for that.
It’s not an emergence from the cocoon,
but a tree growing around an obstruction.”
Meghan O’Rourke

I’m reckoning
How well did I live
How well did I love
How well did I learn to let go