It has been nearly three YEARS since I lost my brother and only sibling. I know many of you are enduring your own unthinkable loss, some a lot newer in your journey than me.
I was out by my garden this weekend with one of my grandbabies and as I looked out at that barren, ugly garden, I thought about how it was just like grief.
In the beginning and for longer than you want… it is so barren, so desolate. The emptiness SOMEHOW fills you, to where all you know is emptiness. The nothingness, the void, the heaviness of what is no longer there. Inescapable, overwhelming void.
But the garden of grief is not REALLY empty…
it is filled with love.
That “dirt” is NOT nothing,
it is filled with the roots of all that was
and the seeds of all that is STILL to come.
Just like grief, you cannot force a garden.
You can ONLY tend it…
nurture it,
learn to accept the barren season,
because the roots that you have
with whomever you lost
run deep….
and are STILL THERE.
the memories,
the between-the-two-of-you laughs…
the stories…
they’ll bloom again,
each in their own time.
Some will be sad and bittersweet,
and no time will erase your longing to see them again.
But with time, the blooms will be beautiful again,
bringing a KNOWING smile to your heart and soul,
memories or thoughts or signs
that allow you to know that
they are STILL with you,
just as the seeds are still under the soil.
I hope this helps someone today.
