Tears of Blissful Acceptance, A Grief Completed

Stage theory in grief is nothing new. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s (1926–2004) work acknowledged, there are myriad manifestations of grief in the human experience.

I favour seasons and fluctuations of grief over stages, as grief carries with it such an unpredictable cycle as to render us frozen at the least anticipated moment. It is wonderful, however, when we reach that safe landing of blissful acceptance; the unanticipated seasons and fluctuations seen only through the rear view mirror. Such a state of being is hard to describe — for the thankfulness that goes ahead of us into the heart of God, in and of itself, can only be accepted.

These tears had confirmed something real in the experience. They are genuine and they are salubrious.

***

Salt water taste in the mouth,
Tears mingling with mine sorrow,
The taste of chlorides in the nose,
Eternity for the memories,
Waiting now’s the game,
Time is left to borrow,
There’s no one I can blame.
Tiredness will do it,
Brings me to my knees,
That salty taste of tears,
All the emotions in their degrees.
Something therapeutic,
Occurs as I wistfully smile,
The eyes have been worked out,
The tears have been worthwhile.

***

Tears of blissful acceptance — a grief ‘completed’ no less — are the visible evidence of a process accomplished by the grace of God.

Those we grieve over never leave us. And this is a key to acceptance; the grief completed. For grief can only be completed when we accept its place in and through us.

When we venture into the memories of our lost ones, with willingness for an experience with God and not in trepidation, that is acceptance; a grief completed.

Such a possession is blessed. God blesses us with an abundance of strength.

We are made better for our losses that are now beautifully memorialised.

The requiem of our repose in loss are tears not of overcoming pain, but of richness of experience with God’s Presence.

God becomes real the very moment we encounter the truth in our sorrow.

God’s Presence — living and active — comes in through the reality of our experience, experientially, of a completed grief.

And what grief is ever truly completed? The sanctity in grief is that God is always transforming us from glory to glory in it; because of it.

The Presence of God is made realer and more manifest for the pain we bear.

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.