Perhaps grief is not about empty, but full. The full breath of life that includes death. The completeness, the cycles, the depth, the richness, the process, the continuity and the treasure of the moment that is gone the second you are aware of it. Alysia Reiner
Meditation: Our life journey is a journey of grief. With this. I do not mean that life is dark and sad all the time. However, life is a never ending process of embracing the fullness of it, and then letting it go. As we become spiritual beings, we embrace life in all its fullness, while at the same time realizing that every beautiful moment is fleeting, and yet so rich. My daughter just got beautiful roses from her boyfriend for their first anniversary. I witnessed her getting in touch with her need to hold on while letting go: She watched the beautiful flowers blossom. She smelled the fragrance, enjoyed their intensity and admired their beauty, while at the same time knowing that they would not last forever. And so she asked, if she could take three of the twelve and dry them when they are at their most beautiful. This is how love, life and grief are. We embrace the intensity of the moment and then let it go. We accept that the moment has to die, while holding on to the experience through symbols. The drying roses, the bread and the wine we share during communion… these are all symbols of holding onto the fullness of life and the experience of love, while accepting that life changes and moves on.
Prayer: God of embrace and of letting go, we often worry about the daily things, we worry about losing things and people we love. We want to hold onto a beautiful moment, and yet need to let it go. You teach us that even though things whither and die, they still symbolically hold the beauty of the experience. Even though we cannot hold on, the fullness of life remains – hidden in the symbols we create to remember and to continue to enjoy the essence of that which they stand for. We thank You for roses, fresh and dried, and for the taste of bread and wine that remind us of the fullness of life and of the experience of love. Amen.
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. Matthew 6: 28-29
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