In grief we face a sacred moment, one permeated with fear, overflowing with pain, steeped in difficulty.
— Molly Fumia
Often what prevents us from creating quiet space in our lives, what keeps us from the essential joy of doing nothing, is the presence of grief. It is a formidable presence and, understandably, our first response is to avoid it.
Grief is always about loss, the anguish and pain we feel when we lose someone or something precious to us. And it regularly happens to all of us. It is one of our most familiar common grounds. No one is immune.
I believe one of the first signs that we are ready to face grief is our willingness to stop, to be quiet, and to be with ourselves.
This is a sign of the sacredness that author Molly Fumia speaks about. Grief is sacred because it can, perhaps more than anything, bring us into contact with ourselves. (In her brilliant and powerful book Honor Thy Children, Fumia relates the story of parents' loss of all three of their children, and of their journey to a noble response.)
So consider: What am I sad about today? Then just allow the feeling of loss, the grief, to be there a moment.
Even though grief involves fear and pain, and even though we initially run from such things, Fumia continues, the "sacredness is in the sound of our returning footsteps." Having grieved, we return to life, to ourselves, with a new compassion, a new understanding, and even a new joy.
— David Kundtz in Quiet Mind