Grief in Beauty: Opening to the Fullness of Life

I often contemplate how with opposing forces of energy, each holds the seed of the other. Like the yin/yang symbol so eloquently depicts, each type of energy lives inside the fullness of the other.

I mentioned this a few weeks ago in my Beltane newsletter: that Beltane’s energy contains some similar themes to Samhain, which lands opposite in the seasonal wheel of the year, in early November.

Both act like portals. One to life, one to death. Both to the unseen, Otherworld, that feeds and informs our own.

Mystery comes alive at these times of the year. Magic seeps through these portals and graces us with unexplained beauty and powerful moments.

Something I’ve noticed in my apprenticeship with the seasons is how nostalgic and grief-laden Spring can feel. A quality that is often associated with Autumn. ​

For me there’s something that’s awakened when I’m so in awe of the world around me, in such heart-quaking love with the beauty of life.

I become acutely aware of the ephemeral quality of it all. ​

The dandelions and camellias have already had their big moment of blooming, and the tulips have died back in my yard.

The Dogwood flowers, who so regally stretched towards the sky a week ago, are now raining down off the trees as blessings for the earth. ​

Yes, there’s more of the exquisite show to come, and still, it’s helpful to recognize that these moments are so precious because of death. Because they don’t last. ​

Grief is intimately tied to the beauty and wonder of life, and when we open ourselves up to our love for the world, we open ourselves up to grief as well. ​

In our first class of Infusing the Sacred Into Your Life, we had a beautiful, organic discussion about grief and death. It was permeating people’s experiences as we opened ourselves up to the Sacred. There were many tears. And so much heart-opening connection.

And it illustrated the important truth that when we open ourselves up to life, we’re opening ourselves up to it all: the full range of experience that this body brings. ​

So when we allow the sacredness of life to move through us, it can often bring with it the piercing reality of death. ​

And if you’ve ever been in relationship with death, you’ll know that it leaves in its wake a feeling of the preciousness of each moment we have here.

My intention over the past 10 or so years of doing some deep healing and whole-ing has been to continually open up to more of myself, and to more of the world. To let life move through me.

This has led me to some dark places, some intense shadow reckonings, but it also has been what has liberated me to find a sense of wholeness within myself.

Because when we close off to protect ourselves from feeling grief or fear or anger or shame, we also innately close ourselves off to the energies of love, joy, and peace. ​

So my dear, as you open to the blooming brightness of this time of year, notice the fullness of what wants to move through you. ​

It may carry traces of a wide variety of emotional experience.

This doesn’t mean anything other than your precious body is experiencing life moving through. And there's nothing more beautiful than that. ​

Let it move. Let it pass through. Let Life live you.