The experience of intense grief is like standing in the fire. Sometimes we carry grief with us over many years. Because grief leaves us feeling vulnerable and if there is fear too it seems overwhelming, we face the prospect of how to deal with it. Grief can become pervasive, infecting everything in life or be pushed into the back of the mind, giving the impression that it has gone or been resolved. The way to truly heal grief and resolve fear, I believe, is to embrace it. That is what we must do. Astoundingly, it is strengthening and ennobling.
Standing in the Fire
When brought to your knees
by grief or vulnerability
that takes you into
raw humility and
the earth of your being
When you don’t rush away
in fright or pain
but stand right in the fire
ready to burn;
Then to amazement
What burns is not the self
but the terrible fear,
the extraneous stuff
that feeds the false self
on the periphery of being
When you pause after the fire
you descend earth-deep
to the roots of your ancestors
blessed and awed
by all that brought you to being
When you stay longer
in a sacred state
and join the underground river,
the river of shared meaning,
you find humanity at its best
Then, with almost unbearable
love and calm
you are taken
immersed and bathed
in elusive and infinite oneness.
Di Percy, 2019