This past week I have felt waves. Not only waves in my hair, or radio waves, but physical waves in my body, waves in my mind.
and the big one that knocked me off my surfboard of life - a wave of grief.
That wave taught me a lot. I'd never felt a wave like that before. It seemed to come out of nowhere, but I no that it was spurred by my sister's birthday last week and the 1 year anniversary of her death in a couple of days. What I learned, is that grief is like forgiveness, or pratyahara (sense withdrawal - a yoga thing). We can't practice forgiveness. We have either truly forgiven or we haven't. We can't practice sense withdrawal, we are either in it or we aren't. All we can do is set up the conditions for these things to happen.
For me, grief now falls into this category. I gave myself space to grieve last year, but it wasn't until the last couple of weeks that the actual grief came forth. And I understand how it can be debilitating. I'm so grateful to be where I am in my life. So grateful to be alive. So grateful to have experienced its power, and so grateful to have both internal (my spiritual and yoga practice) and external (friends, etc...) support systems so I don't have to do it all alone.
One of the beauties of tragedy is that is provides an arena for community.
So thank you. Thank you. thank you.
Thank you community, inside and out. I am grateful for life. I am grateful for all of it.
and the big one that knocked me off my surfboard of life - a wave of grief.
That wave taught me a lot. I'd never felt a wave like that before. It seemed to come out of nowhere, but I no that it was spurred by my sister's birthday last week and the 1 year anniversary of her death in a couple of days. What I learned, is that grief is like forgiveness, or pratyahara (sense withdrawal - a yoga thing). We can't practice forgiveness. We have either truly forgiven or we haven't. We can't practice sense withdrawal, we are either in it or we aren't. All we can do is set up the conditions for these things to happen.
For me, grief now falls into this category. I gave myself space to grieve last year, but it wasn't until the last couple of weeks that the actual grief came forth. And I understand how it can be debilitating. I'm so grateful to be where I am in my life. So grateful to be alive. So grateful to have experienced its power, and so grateful to have both internal (my spiritual and yoga practice) and external (friends, etc...) support systems so I don't have to do it all alone.
One of the beauties of tragedy is that is provides an arena for community.
So thank you. Thank you. thank you.
Thank you community, inside and out. I am grateful for life. I am grateful for all of it.
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