Men and Grief

Men and Grief

...learning to release the love beneath...

Caring for people
and caring for the Earth
stirs my entombed grief.
But only certain death
can awaken it.

Rohr tells me,
if I do not transform my pain,
surely I will transmit it.

But now it seems as though
my pain is transforming me.

For years I piled high
my anger and resentment,
placing my grief on top -
like a great lodestone.

Then I lit a fire
fueled by my rage.

. . .

That fire remains warm,
but is just about burned out.
I guess only a distant star
can burn eternally.

And so I now settle
into the bones I am given,
and begin the daunting task
of excavating my sooty rockpile
in order to release my grief.

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If you do not transform your pain,
you will transmit it.
~ Richard Rohr

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