I have been through many a hell in my day. Metaphorical flaming pits and symbolic rocky bottoms aside, there is one literal place that contains the stench of a thousand fiery furnaces: the DMV. In the San Fernando Valley. In mid-July. Moderately hung over.
Though it has been over a decade since last I donned the Valley DMV, I can still remember the overwhelming sense of dread that came over me. The line, hideously long as usual, snaked out of the front door, extending down the side all the way to the back. I was in for a long morning.
I tried to make the most of it. I brought a book I had been reading and was happy to spend that time climbing back into the words that overtook my mind. I was brought out of my little world by a large man in front of me talking rather loudly on his phone. I admit, this is a pet peeve of mine, but it was especially trying as he seemed to be the type to not only carry on such conversation in that public space, but he also wanted to do it ten decibels above adequate speaking frequency to ensure that everyone around him could hear and knew he was…whatever egoic identity he was trying to project that morning.
The cycle of death and rebirth is present throughout all of life. It reminds us that there truly is no definitive end, only a transitional phase to a new beginning.
As trying as these times can be, it is important to reframe them not as something to be feared, but as something to be embraced.
The embracing of the transition reframes our perspective so that we can accept what is happening, surrender to the process, trust the transition and have faith in the outcome….knowing that the morning is worth the night.
The world has never had a lack of grief. And never will. For grief is a natural expression of emotion in temporal existence.
What do we do with this?
Knowing that this seemingly overwhelming emotion will inevitably be part of our emotional experience.
Our spiritual landscape would be incomplete without it.
Therefore, a mental/emotional/spiritual reframe is necessary.
Instead of viewing the experience of grief through a negative lens, if we can see our grief as healthy spiritual lamentation of our experience of Love through the inevitable transition of death, then our Grief can be approached with Light and therefore become positively integrated into the Whole of Our Being.
Knowing that this present death is not a final word in the soul’s journey, but merely another turning of the page.
For in Our grief, we find Beauty
In Our Beauty, we find Truth
And Truth shall set Us Free….