Hi
I thought within this Blog I would talk a bit about grief and what it means. We have all suffered during these ‘lockdowns’ we had to slow down, and because we have slowed down we see and understand more about life, more about nature and more about the abuse of our planet. Todays news regarding Afghanistan is appalling, violence against women, children and the male population is palpable and horrendous.
So looking at grief we can see that it encompasses all aspect of life, not just losing someone. Thich Nhat Hanh states this in his book ‘The Art of Living’
” If we have lost someone who is very close to us and we are grieving, the concentration of emptiness helps to look deeply in ways which they still continue. They are still with us in a different form.
In the light of emptiness and interbeing we know that they have not died or disappeared: They continue in their actions and within us. We can still talk to them, saying we know you are there, I’m breathing for you, I’m smiling for you, I enjoy looking around with your eyes, I know you are still there very close to me and that now you continue in me:”
Such wise and gentle words and very true.
We always think of Grief as someone dying don’t we, but as I said above, it’s not just about losing someone it’s about life and continuation. We all have to do our little bit, that’s all we can do, we can blame government for our situation, but that’s all it is’ blame’ there always has to be someone to blame. The planet is in dire straits, who do we blame? ourselves? Other people? Or do we all contribute to all these difficulties? I think the latter, what do you think?
The state of the poor in this country as well abroad is shocking, we could call that grief, or we could be practical and try to help. Terrorism and fanatics don’t always have to win, education is so important, but if that is taken away then all that is left is medieval justice, life moves on, remember we are impermanent. Each moment has to mean something, no past, no present, no future. This moment is the only moment.
Love Jenny x
Lovely words as always Jenny. x
I read about grief and how to cope and sometimes it works, sometimes I wonder if it’s just my mind trying desperately to cling on something. When I lost my dad I convinced my mum he is still with us, but in a different form. I have moments when I question this. What if it’s just me not accepting he is not here anymore? I do believe our ancestors “live” in us, genetics, habits, culture. Is there more? I don’t know, I’ll find out, maybe, when I’ll leave this world.
Meantime, I try to live my life in kindness and fairness. I think if we all can be kind, all problems will find a solution. But what to do when we are surrounded by hate, selfishness, greed and all the ugly faces of the life brought by these? I don’t have the clear answer.
I can do my part to a point. It will not change the politics of the country, it will not fix the corruption, it will not save the planet or those countries at war. But at least I can hold with my head up, because I live in kindness and fairness.
How true grief takes many forms like a dark cloud that hangs over you and grips your heart leaving you feeling cold and empty. But if we can remember the happy moments and loving memories we can break the dark cloud with blue sky and let the sunshine through to warm our hearts again.
My heart and prays go out to all those poor people around the world suffering oppression and fear usually caused by misguided religious beliefs and or ignorance and fear of education which manifest as hate and intolerance that seems to dominate their being and blind them to the beauty of the world and all the richness within it.
Lovely words Gwen, and very true. xx
The collection of Atoms.
“In death, the collection of atoms of which you are composed (a universe within the universe) are repurposed. Those atoms and that energy, which originated during the Big Bang, will always be around. Therefore, your “light,” that is, the essence of your energy — not to be confused with your actual consciousness — will continue to echo throughout space until the end of time.”
Scientifically we are 98% the same construction as a Star.
Therefore “You want a physicist to speak at your funeral. You want the physicist to talk to your grieving family about the conservation of energy, so they will understand that your energy has not died. You want the physicist to remind your sobbing mother about the first law of thermodynamics; that no energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed.
You want your mother to know that all your energy, every vibration, every Btu of heat, every wave of every particle that was her beloved child remains with her in this world. You want the physicist to tell your weeping father that amid energies of the cosmos, you gave as good as you got.
And at one point you’d hope that the physicist would step down from the pulpit and walk to your brokenhearted spouse there in the pew and tell him that all the photons that ever bounced off your face, all the particles whose paths were interrupted by your smile, by the touch of your hair, hundreds of trillions of particles, have raced off like children, their ways forever changed by you.
And as your widow rocks in the arms of a loving family, may the physicist let her know that all the photons that bounced from you were gathered in the particle detectors that are her eyes, that those photons created within her constellations of electromagnetically charged neurons whose energy will go on forever.
You can hope your family will examine the evidence and satisfy themselves that the science is sound and that they’ll be comforted to know your energy’s still around. According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you’re just less orderly.” (An amalgam of different sources.)