And yet, even as we experience the flooding swells of sadness for ourselves and the ones we love as we travel the path of loss, there is a certain somber beauty in the experience. And mixed with our ecstatic joy is a soft but lingering sorrow. And just as the deep ache of our primal grief feels as if it will consume us utterly, it recedes like the tide. And joy fills us up so that we feel we will always be full with it, and then it empties. Both of them ebb and flow and life goes on.
Over time, the rushing surges of grief become more gradual, and we learn to assimilate our losses. But it's important to recognize that we are sad still in subtle ways, for all of the myriad of our accumulated grief, and that our sadness has a place in us. It cannot be pushed out with forced gaiety or affirmations or cheer. It recedes, and joy floods forth. And today's bursting joy becomes dull and foggy, but the echo of it lives on in us and has its place. Both of them come and go, and come and go. Joy rises and sadness recedes, and then sadness rises. In the experience of one is the shadow of the other. And each have their part in the rhythm of life.
I honor the sadness in me as well as the joy. Together they make me whole.
