Poem - Blessing for the Brokenhearted

[DWS]

 I had another chat session with my grief counselor yesterday. She read and then emailed this intriguing poem to me. It may have been posted on here in the past but thought I'd share it. I think it's empowering for us grievers...

Blessing for the Brokenhearted by Jan Richardson

There is no remedy for love but to love more.
– Henry David Thoreau

Let us agree
for now
that we will not say
the breaking
makes us stronger
or that it is better
to have this pain
than to have done
without this love.

Let us promise
we will not
tell ourselves
time will heal
the wound,
when every day
our waking
opens it anew.

Perhaps for now
it can be enough
to simply marvel
at the mystery
of how a heart
so broken
can go on beating,
as if it were made
for precisely this—

as if it knows
the only cure for love
is more of it,

as if it sees
the heart’s sole remedy
for breaking
is to love still,

as if it trusts
that its own
persistent pulse
is the rhythm
of a blessing
we cannot
begin to fathom
but will save us
nonetheless.

 

[Gail 8588]

Beautiful.

Thanks.

[BohoKat]

Poetry is very powerful for me and I haven’t seen a lot so thank you for sharing.

[DWS]

For me, the most powerful part of the poem is this...

Perhaps for now
it can be enough
to simply marvel
at the mystery
of how a heart
so broken
can go on beating

Something that I haven't mentioned since joining this site is that three months prior to my partner Tom passing away, I had to say goodbye to my beloved cat Dolly. She was in my life for 18 and half years...showed up as a kitten under my front porch...and she was one wild ball of furry craziness that demanded much of my attention over those years. To think that my little family of Tom and Dolly would be taken from me in a three month span and that I'd still somehow manage to carry on with this broken beating heart is astonishing to me. 

[Summersun]

Dolly rules. She is the queen. No nonsense, eh?

Just look at her. So cute, and I bet, so so loving, whenever she wanted to. Love that about cats!

She is a beauty and she knows it. 

Miss my cat all the time, and he is gone since 99. Never loved being a servant in some cat rulers kingdom more. 

They are irreplaceble.

Strength to you, Don!

Hope you are ok today.

[DWS]

5 hours ago, Summersun said:

Dolly rules. She is the queen. No nonsense, eh?

Thank you, Summersun. Dolly definitely ruled this household. Her jealousy was on full display when Tom entered the picture. 

Hope you've been doing okay as well. 

[KayC]

OMG, Dolly looks so much like my Kitty, my 25 1/2 year old cat who passed nearly three years ago!  I am sorry for your loss...multiple losses are so hard, we don't know whether to juggle them or try doing them simultaneously...they both have their place in your heart and I've learned loving them your "whole heart" includes both of them.

[DWS]

Thanks @KayC ...I had just started to get to a place of peace over my loss of Dolly and then Tom's passing happened out of the blue. I continue to ask why both were taken from me in that short timespan even though I know there aren't any answers. 

[KayC]

I know...it's so hard.  I asked why for about a year, then quit as I never got any resounding answers.