Grief-frames

Happy 82nd Birthday, dear Mom born Nov.1, 1942

(photo credit on this post goes to my sister Marlene)

Yesterday, at my mother's annual birthday tea-party

the presence of each other seemed more treasured,

 our love more tender than ever before,

in the light of grief...

My mom asked if she could host it

(for the first time ever) in what has been a tradition

for SO many years!

If Lucy were here I could count on her to remember

when it started, who hosted it

and maybe even what she was wearing and

if/who she was pregnant with...

😅😂💖

She had an incredible memory!! 

Because mom hosted it, Dad could enjoy the celebration too 💝

(although we have another one on Sunday that includes our men as well)

Grief ebbs, then rushes in like a billow, invisible

It rolls through heart and soul with staggering intensity

It strips us of all pretense; Love's most severe crucible

As God, who IS love, tries the Part that He alone can see

Grief sends us on a journey we would never choose to take

Around and 'round a gaping void, veiled by façades, skin-thin

It winds heartstrings through phantom frames where echoes tug and ache

Woven from moments not unlike the moments we are in

Grief moans like autumn's lonely wind through woodlands, leaf-bereft

It sobs, like summer, silenced by its sum of Season-sand

From detonated dreamlands, it examines what is left

Sifting through drifts of rubble diamond-dust, where once Love laughed and planned

Grief teaches us to live with an 'if the Lord wills' regard

To love as if Today could be the last for you or me  

It stirs holier handling of dawn's invitation card

Because Today does not come with a Morrow-guarantee  

Grief metes Love's Must; relentless thrust of waves, dash-crash-recede 

Then, with renewed velocity, returns with wrenching pains 

To wander rooms, once full of Innocence we did not heed

Where now his/her essence of presence, like a shadow remains

Grief takes us to the arms of friends and family so dear

And it is no coincidence, it drives us to our knees

To draw us to The Sacred Solace of God's list'ning ear 

*And glimpses to the Inner Room of Heaven's Mysteries/Sympathies

Janet 💔🙏

The verses below comfort me constantly,

as I lift my wordless groans to God's intercession

Rom.8:26-27

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. 

We do not know what we ought to pray for, 

but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 

 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, 

because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people 

in accordance with the will of God.

Below, yesterday's timely and profound devotion

from the book Streams in the Desert, Vol.1

(* this devotion articulates splendidly, the last line in today's poem)

While I was working on this post

a friend sent me these words...

She is mourning the loss of a friend who passed away this week.

"God is so gracious and so tender,

 even though we might never get the ‘why’ on this side of heaven."

Thank-you, Joanne!

(Her friend was released from a brave battle with ALS)

And last but not least...

My mom with her salt and pepper shaker collection

200+ pairs!

Yesterday she invited each of us to choose a pair,

before she gives her grandchildren the opportunity to do the same

I chose these Siamese cats.

They have lived in my mother's china hutch since

before I was born.

From her friend Mary (Mrs. Abner Martin)

My two 'little sisters' enjoying their choices!

Lucy was the middle sister...