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I feel its presence every day, some days stronger than others. It sits with me like an old friend who doesn’t need conversation, or to fill the space with meaningless chatter. Its presence gently reminds me to remember compassion for myself and others, to never forget grace and gratitude, and to make space for embodied attention. I’m okay with this constant companion, despite the daily passthrough of melancholy. Honestly, I don’t see much choice and I learned the hard way that it’s better than pretending grief is not here. The repercussions of ignoring grief can be seen and felt everywhere, everyday, through anger, resentment, denial, violence, war, hate…it’s enough to keep any of us self-medicating, numbing, pretending, and hiding.
Even still, many of us are not hiding. In fact, finally, many of us are emerging, awakening and manifesting. I am so inspired by our fellow humans not afraid to speak up and take action. Many are doing the hard work. Many are facing this grief, seeing it in each other, and reaching out to say “I’m here for you, let's do this together.” Many of us are relentless in our pursuit to remain conscious and connected to truth, to keep hope alive, and heed the call to use the gifts and talents we’ve been given to serve the greater good. If we lean in and pay attention we can see it, we can see our superpower.
This superpower is spawned by our ability to live with grief as a constant reminder to increase our connection to each other, to help each other, to be kind to one another, to uplift joy and share the abundance in our lives despite the ugliness we see, despite the bombardment of loss and violence. If we pay attention, we see and understand that our superpower is our Humanity. It is our faith that love can still prevail as long as we are conscious, forgiving and giving. Humanity is our courage to uphold authentic kindness and unconditional benevolence in the face of our old, programmed or ancestral stories, in defiance of our fragile egos, and despite what societal illusions feed us. Our humanity is our lifeline to each other, to this planet and to all that sustains it. We sorely underestimate ourselves if we can't see what we are capable of with our humanity.
The promise of being human is that I will forget, I will lose my temper again, anxiety will find me, my gratitude might fail, and the apathy of all that I cannot control will re-employ my earthly sorrow. I look at my grief, feel the weight of it in my body and I ask it, how will I remember? Grief smiles a slow smile and points softly towards my chest. "We travel south", it says, "we travel from your head to the beautiful sanctuary that houses your humanity. We travel to your heart and we stay there for awhile, for as long as it takes to remember who you are." The wisdom is there. It's always been there. This miraculous, blood-red, powerhouse drumming rhythmically beneath our ribcage urges us to see, hear, feel, breathe, taste, smell, feel alive, love, laugh, cry, and grieve. Our heart begs us to come back, rest, and remember, as much as we need to, again, and again and again.
Learn more about how to start your own gratitude practice in our guide.