I was recently introduced to the work of Jan Richardson, specifically her book The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief. It seems we are all grieving right now. Some are grieving the death of a loved one. Some are grieving the loss of balance and yearn for a sense of normalcy to return. Some are grieving the inability to pursue certain desires. Some are grieving lives lost to injustice, oppression, and systemic racism. Some are grieving about political matters. Whatever it may be, there is no argument that 2020 has sucked for many people. For me, it seems proper to name. Mostly, I do it silently and sometimes I do it in my car. I’ve been tempted many times to step outside and yell it at the top of my lungs. I did that, once, at this beautiful serene spot. It was incredible. There is power in naming. It breaks a story open.

Have you named what you are grieving? If not, what’s holding you back? If so, how has your story been broken open for healing to enter and start it’s work?

I know how long you have been waiting for your story to take a different turn, how far you have gone in search of what will mend you and make you whole. I bear no remedy, no cure, no miracle for the easing of your pain.

But I know the medicine that lives in a story that has been broken open. I know the healing that comes in ceasing to hide ourselves away with fingers clutched around the fragments we think are none but ours.

See how they fit together, these shards we have been carrying— how in their meeting they make a way we could not find alone.

THE HEALING THAT COMES, from the cure for sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief. – JAN RICHARDSON (inspired by mark 5:21-43)