Spiritual Themes>Grief and Loss|Quest Article

The CLF serves over 1,100 members who are currently incarcerated.

Grief is more than just an intense form of pain. It is the emotion triggered by severe loss—a loss of a part of the self.

Each person on this earth has experienced loss. We may think when grief comes over us that we are alone in our mourning, that the smiling chatty folks around us don’t know…but of course they do. Being alive in this mortal world means knowing loss.

In writing about her mother’s death, Meghan O’Rourke suggests, “A mother is a story with no beginning.”

Just as grief work is a process by which bereaved persons un­block their numbed energies by acknowledging and grieving the loss of a loved one, so do we all need to unblock our feelings about our threatened planet and the possible demise of our species. Until we do, our power of creative response will be crippled.

It was not a surprise when my mother died. Survival rates for ovarian cancer are not high, and hers was in stage four by the time it was diagnosed. Against those odds, she lived three years with a high quality of life.

Look! I have made this bowl for you, this large dark blue one with lilies etched across the bottom, around the sides.