04 October 2023

Grief

 There have been a few deaths of people I know, in our town, in the past month.  The last was a fellow Libra, a senior colleague and a teacher of my children.  I knew her well.

When I looked at her children, somehow I remembered the passing of my own mother--which was very sudden-- and the passing away of my son.  I remember thinking, especially after my son passed away, life has to go on and all the friends and relatives go immediately back to their lives, because that is the way it is, that is what life is all about, although what went through my mind were the words of the song,       "Why does the sun go on shining, why does the sea wash the shore?  Don't they know it's the end of the world, it ended when you said goodbye".

 All of us who lose someone close, have to swim, wade, push through the grief, accepting that the sun will shine, life will go on, good things and bad will happen willy nilly and those of us left behind are still alive and will go on living.  I remember thinking I could not strum my guitar ever again.  But slowly, one laughs again, remembers the good times and then one day you know you have reached the shores of grief, no longer drowning.  The hurt of the loss gets a keloid around it, and I am living the best life I can.  Living the best life does not diminish the love for the one gone though.  Memories will always remain.  But yes the earth turns and the universe continues to exist and accepting that is the only way to get to the shoals of grief and come out on the sands of life, to walk the path ahead.