The Way of All Things

It is perfectly ok to sit for a while in the hole created by loss,

to immerse yourself in grief's forced isolation,

to feel your pain so deeply that love's essence permeates the walls of your emptiness,

and your tears soak the ground around you.

For you see, eventually, seedlings of possibility will drop into that hole,

and they will need your tear's moisture for their germination,

your love's fertilizing for their sprouting,

and the light of a new day for their flourishing.

And you will come to understand

...that there can be no sense of fullness without also knowing emptiness,

and there is no emptiness that does not one day become refilled with hope's promise.

...that there can be no concept of light's brightness without also knowing dark's despair,

and there is no door that closes us in blackness that does not eventually point us to another that opens to the light.

...that there can be no recognition of true joy without the experience of heartache,

and there is no heartache that does not ripen the path for new joy to grab hold.

So rest for a while in the emptiness of heartache's sorrow.

Be in the sadness of what you have lost,

and cry for what was but can no longer be,

but do not linger there longer than you must

for life calls out to you with new light that waits to fill your emptiness,

bringing with it unimaginable blessing,

while memory waits patiently in the background to remind you, over and over, of the perfection and beauty in the way of all things.

©Chris Colyer

August 11, 2019