On last week's podcast, Kari blessed me and I hope you with her present progressive grief.

I, like so many of us, have experienced loss and watched/shared heart-rending sorrow many times in my almost fifty years.

However, unlike most, I once wrote a book about loss and God.  I have also been asked to be the curate/cleric of several memorial services for those who died tragically and far, far too young.

These profound opportunities have forced me to study and meditate on the universal grief experience.  Below I have printed my favorite poem-discovery in those dark times... it found me amongst those seasons of sorrow and reflection.  I hope it blesses you:

'Tis a Fearful Thing
by
Yehuda Halevi

‘Tis a fearful thing
to love what death can touch.
A fearful thing
to love, to hope, to dream, to be –
to be,
And oh, to lose.
A thing for fools, this,
And a holy thing,
a holy thing
to love.
For your life has lived in me,
your laugh once lifted me,
your word was gift to me.
To remember this brings painful joy.
‘Tis a human thing, love,
a holy thing, to love
what death has touched.