A Long Season of Loss

A long season of loss: 

there comes a certain age for all of us when the balance begins to tip towards a long season of loss, sometimes just a bare notice at first as it seems no one is immune to misfortune. But through our middle years we begin to note more often the growing list of loved ones and friends now gone, our parents growing evermore frail, or maybe even our own health has become somewhat of a concern.

perhaps this becomes our first extended meditation on mortality.

it's a long season of loss. 

yet it's also a season of expansion and a deeper sense of love, gaining empathy through the means of continuously being broken open and our grief exposed. To know loss is to learn of genuine love, how each of us will face this season alone no matter how many people may surround us, and that the only thing we can truly offer another is our presence. 

it sometimes doesn't feel enough. 

but it is, as presence is the capacity to hold all things, silently, yet with full attention given. Our presence extends through time and distance, closing the gap of grief and sorrow between us. It's shared, more so, it's the very ground of our existence, our sure and true connection. 

it's what we have to offer. 

and in our long season of loss...

we walk this ground together. 

~

Peace, Eric