Saying Goodbye

Autumn air does a heart-dance
on branches already gone barren;
the misty air clings to golden leaves,
making the trees bend even lower.

It is a season to hold the trees close,
to stand with them in their grieving.
It is a time to open my inner being
to the misty truths of my own goodbyes.

~from Joyce Rupp's Praying Our Goodbyes

Two years ago I lost my mom quite suddenly. This death handed me an understandable, palpable grief. I miss her every day but my mourning has ended and life goes on in its natural course. But how am I to grieve for my dear friend, who for all intents and purposes has already left me, not through death but through severe brain trauma. How I want to scream out to the universe, to God, how does this happen? Why? Why? Why? I am not sure what is worse - the horror of what has happened to my dear friend, or the unquenchable anguish gripping her husband. The reality of this kind of pain seems unbearable. No words can ease the intensity of this kind of grieving. It is time to open my inner being to the misty truths of not just to goodbye but to a necessary loss of hope.

Hope

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all. . .
~Emily Dickinson

How does one bring hope to the hopeless? What words can one say to alleviate anguish? The hardest thing in the world is to be powerless when faced with the suffering experienced by those one loves and cherishes. Oh Lord, help make me an instrument of your peace. . .

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

Bye Bye Summer

Cool August evenings signal summer's coming to a close and I am looking ahead to autumn and all its glories!