Grief Deserves Grace
By Kerri Hays of @thesacreddeathproject
It’s the shared underground current
To the pulsing heartbeat of all humankind
The common thread of finely woven sacred string
That serves a season of all lives
It’s birth. It’s death. It’s grief
And this grief deserves grace.
Why do we deny this universal emotion
That could empathize with the world
We ALL carry it
But not well
Our society teaches us to slap it away
Like an annoying gnat that smells fresh sweat
We hide it. We push it. We mask it
But it is grief
And it deserves grace.
Yours will be yours
And mine will be mine
No timeline
No map
No right or wrong.
Like a hot ball of lava
It can boil inside of you with rage
It can bring you to your knees
And beg for tenderness like the kind you would give
To an innocent cherub child
It can make you jealous
And brittle down to your bones
And if you don’t give it the space it demands
It will haunt you until quiet has found you
And explode like flame
That has been fueled with gas and breath.
Like a high wind storm
It will catch you off guard and never with warning
In constant motion like the swelling waves of an ocean
Grief is potent yet fragile
And it deserves grace.
So invite it in
As if sharing a warm cup of tea
With a friend that has showed up at your door
Offer it the coziest blanket you have
Hand it tissues and allow it to speak
Without interruption
Set with it
Be with it
Let it move through you
While you scream and dance and laugh and cry.
You will break and then you will mend
And it will repeat
Forever.
This is grief. And it deserves grace.