04/16/2023
From the Pueblo elder and Mayan shaman, Martín Prechtel:
“Grief is not sorrow. It’s not weeping. Grief is the beauty that fills the sorrow, the loss, the terror of having lost something. Grief is what you do to rebuild and to make life happen again.
You better weep and feel the sorrow of loss. Of course, that goes without saying. But grief is what you do when you’re done doing that. It’s the beauty you make from that loss. It’s what you fill that hole with and what you grow with it.
If you’re going to have a loss you’re terrified of, it will solidify as an illness in your body or psyche. And you avoid the pain, instead of having it metabolized by grief into something that actually gives life.
You must use your hands and your voice to make something of beauty that will feed something besides yourself and a time beyond your own that you will not see. That’s what makes you a human worth descending from in this time.
I mean, if people could see the joy, the beauty, the incredibleness of being alive. We’re just a pile of ash and water stuck together so we can kiss and argue—I mean wow how could this happen? We’re allowed to be here this small amount of time, to have the majesty of seeing the sun come up, to have our children around the fire, to drink some tea.”
