Weeping is Art
I'm an ugly crier. My face swells up like a marshmallow and I barely resemble myself. I go long periods of time without shedding a tear, then have weeks where I'm moved by the tiniest particle of beauty, walking around in states of awe as if it was my first time on earth.
To live in a state of awe is to live in a state of grief. To love, to uncover the beauty that surrounds us, even that which requires looking in dark corners or under heavy rocks, that which enables one to see the light inside the ugliest situations, to feel the love that’s wrapped up in misery, to know that this human experience is terrible and wonderful, is to know grief.
I think the world is walking around in a state of confusion and numbness, unable to feel joy, accept truth, or express from the inner spark because grief is stored up inside of cells and the key sank to the bottom of the ocean.
Our society uses funerals as a substitute for not grieving. You get one hour, maybe, and then your tears are unacceptable to the status quo because if you cry then you remind everyone of what they are holding inside so tightly. Thus, to emote within the entire spectrum of existence, knowing that all emotions are guideposts (not good or bad) for what needs attention, is to embrace and expand our capacity for the wholeness of being.
I’m NOT saying be an emotional wreck projecting out unhealed wounds and an inability to embody emotional maturity and regulation. These are not the same. That is an invitation for learning to self-regulate and do the inner work. The comprehension of grief, as an ally, through knowing thyself and finding connection to nature, to our surroundings, is to find integration as a balance inside the pendulum of possibilities.
Beyond that, there is a need in our culture to stop and grieve…the plant that died, an old version of yourself, an experience that can’t be replicated, a lost object, wasted time, a mistake, an ailment, even a win. Sometimes we even need to grieve letting go of something we love, honoring that its time with us is at its end.
To experience the fullness of life is to live with a sense of grief, to know that this moment for which you are experiencing right now is fleeting and it is because of this willingness to face this fact, and give your body permission to inhabit this emotion, that you can let go, move forward, find gratitude for what is, love more deeply, and let joy move through you.
Grief and joy flow from the same spring
Tears of laughter and tears of sorrow
together make up the yin and yang
the pendulum swings inside everything
weeping waits for the inner spring to sing
to move inside you with its watery energy
giving rise to inspiration, a teary destination
expressed through your heartfelt curation
so freedom can become your salvation
no more holding on to all of life's stagnation
the deeper you grieve, the greater the joy
fear not turmoil, let the sadness be enjoyed
and the tears cleanse, an offering of rejoice
for all that is and all that will ever be
without it, you can't embrace the ectasy
the fullness only emptiness can bring
equilibrium restored by letting go
let the tears out, let the water flow
“Grief expressed out loud for someone we have lost, or a country or home we have lost, is in itself the greatest praise we could ever give them. Grief is praise, because it is the natural way love honors what it misses.”
― Martin Prechtel, The Smell of Rain on Dust: Grief and Praise
What we've experienced as a collective is traumatizing, the world walks around in a slumber, we need to learn to grieve in order to let go of the spells we're under.
Thunder is the sky wailing, hail is the sky yelling, rain is the sky weeping, lighting strikes only when you’re sleeping...remember why…it’s healing.
Giving yourself permission to grieve as you walk through life is giving yourself permission to love.
People think it’s the light workers that will change the world, but the weepers, the grievers, and the feelers are powerful healers who keep the energy flowing and all life from drying up into a vast-colorless-scorching-desert. The water bearer’s of positive change, those who dance in the rain because they are in oneness with its falling teardrops.
I wrote this a few years ago, but it is speaking to me today….Weeping is Art
With Love and Joyful Sadness,
~ Angela