THE RIVER OF GRIEF

 GOD’S PLAN  

Your plan for your life may have nothing to do with God’s plan. God’s plan is what happens. Your plan is what you think will happen. This does not mean that you should not make plans. Life must be lived; plans must be made.

You may plant an apple tree with a vision of mouth-watering apples in your mind. Just when the apples begin to ripen, you get a new job in a new country. You never eat those apples, but you eat new fruit in a new country and someone else enjoys the apples you left behind. Or maybe a storm destroys your tree. You cannot eat those apples, but you still benefit from having planted and loved a tree, and so does the earth. 

An old Chippewa axiom says, “If your eyes cry because of losing the sun, your tears will not allow you to see the stars.”

It can feel so sad to lose something or someone you cherish. No one can say that sadness is not real for you. Emotions are part of being human. To push away or deny feelings is to be less than alive. Feelings must be acknowledged if they are to be resolved and dissolved into love — not hidden away to become clouds that obscure the light from shining through. When we are free to experience a feeling completely, we are also free to move on from that experience. Emotions can be either a flowing river, cleansing and freeing, or a dam that stops the flow.

If you cannot linger to taste even one apple from the tree you have planted, feel your longing; cry your tears—but please do not take old tears with you to the new country to which you are traveling. Neither hold a grudge at the storm for destroying your tree. 

The angels might change that old Chippewa saying to, “If your eyes cry too long because of losing the sun, your tears will not allow you to see the stars,” — and add another, “If your eyes never cry, your unshed tears may become clouds that obscure the light of God from shining clearly through.”

Maybe you thought you were planting the tree to eat apples. Maybe God put the vision in your mind, not to eat apples, but as part of a greater plan. Maybe it was as simple as planting and loving a tree, reaping the benefits of sun and exercise, filling your mind with the beauty of nature, giving back to earth and leaving a lovely legacy.

 FAITH 

Faith is a vital, expansive part of life. Faith is a light shining in your heart. Faith exists in the now. Expectation jumps in and crowds out the innocent expansive energy of faith. Faith can let go. Expectation can only grab. Expectation insists on its own way and experiences a big letdown that can lead to depression and resentment when it does not get what it wants. Expectation travels heavy with demands, attachments, and ego. Faith travels light. Faith holds a vision put there by God. Expectation takes hold of that vision and calls it “mine."

An understanding of faith can be found in these words, “If our vision or medicine told us to move again we would do that, because we cannot be arrogant. We must accept what our vision tells.”  —Sun Bear, Native American of Chippewa descent

And from Hebrews 11:1, comes, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” 

MOVING THROUGH EVENTS AND EXPERIENCES

The spiritual path has been called the razor’s edge. To walk the razor’s edge you must be brave at heart. This means having the courage to face and accept whatever comes your way. You reject nothing. You look at the plate of food that God puts before you and you say, "Yes, this food is for me, not someone else." 

To be truly spiritual is to eat and digest that food. Only then can you be nourished. Only then can you move onto the next plate of food God has prepared for you. When you accept the food before you, acceptance turns into courage. You become a light in this world. You change what is yours to change and accept what is beyond your capacity to change. You neither run nor hide from the world. As Gandhi taught through his living, you become the change you seek. You move through even the tragedies of life with acceptance.

Every tragic experience, no matter how profoundly it may affect you, has a beginning and an end. A tragedy is an event that takes place within conceptual reality; it arises and then passes away. Like any profound experience, however, it may leave an impact upon you: an impact that can change your life forever.

When we cannot let go of a tragic experience, we live in unnecessary suffering, mired in painful emotions: bitterness, defeat, anger, sorrow. Although life moves on around us, we are unable to move on with life. Although the present moment shines brightly, we can see only the darkness of our own despair.  

Although we cannot avoid tragedies, we can learn and grow from them. Grief is a natural reaction to tragedy. Repressing natural feelings of grief is unhealthy. So is dramatizing and holding onto suffering.

 THE RIVER OF GRIEF 

When tragedy first strikes, we may feel consumed by a river of grief—a river that runs so fast and deep, it feels like we are drowning in it. As the river runs its course, we discover it has its own Intelligence. It knows the way even when we do not. Eventually the river transforms into a small, bright diamond and finds a home in our heart.

It’s not that the grief becomes less; in a sense it is sharper and brighter, yet it no longer consumes us. It becomes a powerful force that Guides, Teaches, and Transforms. Within the depths of that small diamond, we find the spark of enthusiasm that is vital for life. We realize that we are still here, no matter what tragedy has befallen us. 

As we accept what we cannot change, we begin to release the pain, or rather, the pain is released by a Higher Power. The strength of God reveals itself and shows us we are not alone. We find the strength to move through tragedy into peace. We live life from an even greater depth and like the sparkle that emanates from a pure bright diamond, we become a light in this world.

THE STRENGTH OF GOD

The strength of God reveals itself to us in many forms. Sometimes we wait for a message in the form of an angel or a miracle and miss the messages right before our eyes. We forget to see God in each other's eyes, in the rain, in the leaves, in the mountains, in the tragedies.

COMPASSION

Compassion is the beacon that guides and informs us in all our ways. Human beings are an interdependent species. We can turn to each other for comfort and support. We do not have to do everything in this world alone. If that were the case, these words would not be written and you would not be reading them. Support from others is most effective when we utilize it to find our own source of strength. This is the purpose of these lessons—to help you find the source of strength and peace within yourself. 

Ego can know only a glimmer of the vastness that is God. No matter how far ego travels on the journey to God, eventually it vanishes in the quest, the way carbon atoms vanish into the clear brilliance of a diamond. 

Emptiness and fullness are both contained within Consciousness. Darkness, the absence of reflection — and light, the presence of reflection— are both contained within and emanate from Consciousness. 

In this world of duality, everything is known by contrast to something else. The concept of good is known by its counterpart evil—and the definitions of good and evil change over time and cultures. In 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts, twenty-four human beings were condemned as witches; nineteen were hanged and five died in prison. Although we may no longer imprison people for being witches, other atrocities are still committed in the name of good and evil. 

Chang Tzu, the Chinese philosopher who lived from 399 to 295 B.C., said, “What is good and pleasant today, may tomorrow become evil and odious. What seems right from one point of view may, when seen from a different aspect, manifest itself as completely wrong.”

God is not a person, and yet each person is contained within God. Creation, as it appears to the human eye, and is defined and categorized by the mind, is an illusion. The only reality is God, and any words used to describe God immediately become false.  

 Meditation on Meditation 

Please find a comfortable position and allow yourself to gently relax. Let your breath be deep and even, your gaze soft upon these words. Meditation can come at any moment. Meditation can come now, as you reflect upon these words. The state of meditation is your true state. Angels cannot tell you what meditation is. Angels can only point the way. The angels beckon, call, and remember you to the peace that is your true nature. True meditation arrives when the meditator disappears.

©2022 Judith A. Parsons aka Indira