How are you feeling?
Today, Wednesday, March 25th, is my sister Margaret's birthday. Even as I'm sending her joy and happiness, I'm holding in my heart an incredible amount of grief and sorrow. Last night I heard that my dear friend David Thomas passed away. He was an incredible soul full of curiosity and wonder, wisdom and love.
It really came as a shock, too, which is how many life-changing occurrences often happen. The Kübler-Ross Model of 5 stages of grief introduced in 1969 is an outline of various emotions experienced after the loss of a loved one or some such similar event. These emotions are: denial, bargaining, anger, despair, and acceptance.
Don't they sound familiar? Are you feeling any of them now?
It is certainly easier to wrap our heads around an experience when we know that it's part of a cycle. Intellectually, I know that day follows night, spring follows winter and I get super excited when I see my little stevia plants emerge from the dead!
It's different when there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the event or occurrence.
And yet...what if there is?
In ancient Sanskrit scripture, we are approaching the end of the Kali Yuga cycle, which means that life as we know it will end. And every ending means a new beginning. This all makes sense intellectually, right? And yet, part of this process is to really work through the gamut of emotions that emerge and really experience the feelings. This means that in order to fully move forward, we must be willing to have our hearts cracked open and work through the feelings of loss.
This is such hard work. Especially when you recognize your individual connection to the collective.
Yet this is the time we chose to be here. Together.
So, give yourself permission to grieve. To be in denial. To be angry. Really feel the feels!
And then, find a quiet place and breathe deeply. You'll actually feel your heart expand with room for more love than you would have imagined possible.