Many of us have fear. Fear of loving too much, and the fear and the pain of loving when you know there will be loss – and then when there is loss, there is of course deep grief.
The way we deal with grief has a lot to do with whether or not the grief heals and strengthens us, or ends up depriving and starving us. We’ve learned a lot of things about grief over the years, like that strong “grin and bear it,” stiff upper lip response to grief which involves denial, and is not an optimum strategy for dealing with a mourning period. My own reaction to people that are grieving is to really give them a lot of support in grieving, and letting the process run its course. That means not just the grief of the loss of the person, but the grief of the loss of any dream in life, of anything that you’ve invested that was lost. There is a reaction to a loss that is a grieving process, and if you don’t deal with the grieving in a way that is true to your being, it’s untrue. It’s just as untrue to grieve when you’re not feeling it, as to not grieve when you’re feeling it.
You can’t really demand any person be on a schedule. You have to ask them to be true to their own heart, to say to somebody, “You haven’t grieved enough,” ’cause they say, “I’m not feeling anything,” isn’t really necessarily tuning appropriately to another person. But when they don’t grieve in harmony with their deepest truth, they end up veiled from their hearts and they end up increasing cynicism about life and increasing fear also, fear of future involvement, fear of any risk.
So, how you go through these processes is really very critical to your own evolution. From a spiritual perspective, from your spiritual, from your soul’s point of view, all of these things are offerings being made to you, to give you the stuff through which you can grow clearer and stronger and emptier and more available to your heart.
-Ram Dass
