Grief and Gratitude

I recently came across the following quote by psychotherapist and author Francis Weller, and it spoke to me at a deep level.

Because of this, the photo at right seems like an appropriate one to use to accompany Weller's words. It's a self portrait I took when recently down by the Mississippi River, close to my home in south Minneapolis.

The work of the mature person is to carry grief in one hand and gratitude in the other and to be stretched large by them.

How much sorrow can I hold? That's how much gratitude I can give.

If I carry only grief, I'll bend toward cynicism and despair. If I have only gratitude, I'll become saccharine and won't develop much compassion.

Grief keeps the heart fluid and soft, which helps makes compassion possible.

– Francis Weller
Excerpted from Tim McKee's article, “The Geography of Sorrow:
Francis Weller On Navigating Our Losses”
The Sun
October 2015

Related Off-site Link:
What Chadwick Boseman’s Death Means in a Year Marked by Grief – Joshua Barajas (PBS Newshour, September 9, 2020).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Marianne Williamson: In the Midst of This “Heartbreaking” Pandemic, It's Okay to Be Heartbroken
• Remembering Chadwick Boseman
• Respite by the River
• Love at Love's Brightest
• You Will Know It
• Resilience and Hope
• Self Portrait
• “Wholeness Is Never Lost, It Is Only Forgotten”
• Autumnal (and Rather Pagan) Thoughts on the Making of “All Things New”
• In the Garden of Spirituality – Rosanne Cash
• Balancing the Fire
• Saying Farewell to 2019 in a Spirit of Gratitude
• Deep Graitude

Image: Michael Bayly (self-portrait, August 2020).