Cry Out Your Grief

Well over a half-million people in the United States have died of Covid-19.  Worldwide over 2 and half million people have died.  After a year of Covid-19s devastating spread, nearly every human being has directly or indirectly felt the pain of significant loss–deaths of loved ones, closed businesses, economic hardships, disrupted educations, and social upheavals.  With so much loss, how are people to express and process their grief?

Jelaluddin Rumi, the mystic, Sufi poet, wrote this poem in the 13th century.  The poem is a remarkable psychological platform for healing and hope.

Cry Out Your Grief

Cry out all your grief, your

disappointment! Say them in

 

Farsi, then Greek.  It doesn’t

matter whether you’re from Rome

 

or Arabia.  Praise the beauty

and kindness praised by every

 

living being.  You hurt and have

sharp desire, yet your presence

 

is a healing calm.  Sun, moon,

bonfire, candle, which?  Someone

 

says your flame is about to be

dowsed, but you’re not smoke or

 

fire.  You’re infinitely more

alive.  Say how that is!  This

 

fluttering love will not stay

much longer in my chest.  Soon it

 

will fly like a falcon to its

master, like an owl saying HU.

Yes!  You must find ways to “cry out your grief”–to express, release, and spew out your pain and disillusionment over so much loss.  Discharge all of your negative energy through art, literature, religious ritual, physical exertion, social bonding–even keening with at least one other person if you must.

The point is to allow yourself to feel the pain and let it flow through you, cleansing and purifying you like a giant crucible. Let the searing, grinding pain bring you back to the truth which is–you are much more than your pain.  You are a light whose flame can never be dowsed.  You are a source of strength and inspiration.  Embrace your strength.  Realize your capacity to be a beacon to others, and if you believe in a Higher Power, immerse yourself in the Essence of what you are–Love!