Give Sorrow Words
Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak,
Whispers the o’er-fraught heart and bids it break.
(Shakespeare, Macbeth, 5.1.50-1)
Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak,
Whispers the o’er-fraught heart and bids it break.
(Shakespeare, Macbeth, 5.1.50-1)
Pelicans link my lives in two locations this morning. Daniel and I see pelicans when we kayak on Clear Lake in Northern California. We paddle round the small peninsula, and there, they are! A cloud of squawking white swirling and settling on the water. I see a blur of pelicans this morning, looking over my…
The human heart, at whatever age, opens only to the heart that opens in return.” ~Maria Edgeworth~ (1 January 1767 – 22 May 1849) Anglo-Irish novelist
GRACE for four generations of Graces Amazing, isn’t it, grace? Praising. Blessing. Raising hearts lifted in thanks. How sweet the sound. The Greeks named three Graces. Joy. Charm. Beauty. Grace, a Lost and Found Department. Finding our ground within the surround sound Grace cares. Cares for. Cares about. Searches out the heart of the other….
Last year we were witnessing for my mother as she slipped out of the world, one breath at a time. Ruth Evelyn Johnston Thompson, ah, what a gal! We all dropped by her bedside to witness with her. We brought what we could and we said our good-byes. My father said his with love songs…
“Red Sun,” photo by Rev. John Millspaugh This prayer was written on October 24, 2007, by Rev. John Gibb Millspaugh, minister of Tapestry, a Unitarian Universalist (UU) Congregation in Mission Viejo, California, and Rev. Sarah Gibb Millspaugh, Adult Programs Director for the Unitarian Universalist Association. The Santiago fire, which had burned almost 20,000 acres that…
I propped up my feet wearing socks grabbed from a jumble bin in a thrift store. My socks and I relaxed and listened to the teachings coming in through the closed circuit TV from the ballroom. Afterwards, Bev came over and said, “Let me look at your sushi socks.” Sure enough, there they were…little prints…
I loved the quote you use for this thought. My current book is about unwitnessed grief. I said that grief has many siblings — guilt, anger, separation among others but of course, Shakespeare says it best.
Your course sounds wonderful. I’ve suggested the “I remember” exercise and also the “I don’t remember” exercise that Natalie Goldberg uses in her Writing the Bones workshop. But your expansion of it to include differing points of view and to make it a way for people to express ranges of sorrow is truly inspired. Thank you for telling us about it on the Women writing the West website and for having this site and blog. You are appreciated! Warmly, Jane
I have articls about grief and a journal called A Year and a Day which I kept after losing my wife. Idaho State Unvieristy is the publisher.
Michael Corrigan