Grief Is...

May has begun. Like a shadow going over the moon, our rekindled grief darkens our hearts, brings a deep pain in the chest, and an intensified longing ache for one who isn't here. Anniversary reaction has become a fact and an immovable object these past four years. I came across this poem today and am sharing it here because it expresses a lot of what I feel when I am too weighed down to find my own words. It's by Alice Wistler.


Grief is laughing with your children and wishing for the absent one to make the circle
complete.

Grief is crying in your car at stoplights.

Grief some days makes you brutally honest; other days, grief muzzles you.

Grief reconstructs your heart.

Grief is sadness, hope, smiles and tears rolled tightly like a snowball.

Grief makes you search past the stars and the moon for Heaven.

Grief strips you of everything you were pretending to be.

Grief gives you new priorities.

Grief opens hidden treasures from deep with in your soul.

Grief allows you to empathize more deeply with others who ache.

Grief makes you unapologetically bold.

Grief is a daily companion, best dealt with by admitting you do walk with it, even after all these years.

Grief is the price of love.