I am surrounded by grief. A friend has just lost her husband to cancer. A cousin has lost her mother. Another friend will soon lose her grandmother. Grief.
A former boss’s father has Parkinson’s. A relative is suffering from advanced ALS. An aunt is falling more and more into Alzheimer’s. Grief.
Grief grabs us with great big hooks and swings us around in a cycle of sadness. To be a Christian does not mean there is no grief. The sorrow over an impending loss, and the loss itself, can be all consuming even to those of us who know that this is not the end. Christians know death is the REAL beginning for those who have placed their trust in Christ. But sorrow still has it’s edge, the serrated edge of a knife that cuts so deeply. Someone is gone; there is an absence. And we are forced to continue without them.
Christ knew what it was like to have a dear one pass. He stood and wept at the tomb of Lazarus. Grief. Christ understood it, and understands it now. And He is there with us as we go through it.
For there is a time for grieving, a time for sorrow, and this is that time for some people I know and love. It is with great empathy and sympathy that I wrote this poem. I dedicate it to all who are feeling the pain of loss.
It’s not an easy poem. It’s a poem about grief.
Grief
By Mary Hughes
Scorched by fire,
Blistered by heat,
I feel grief’s coals
Beneath my feet.
I breathe grief out;
I breathe grief in.
And watch the ashes
In the wind.
