Grief is a Temporary Guest

Heartache after heartache will come

over, uninvited to your home.

They won’t knock,

they will just walk

right in and take

away something that made

you feel loved, or wanted, or safe.

And for a time

You will find 

grief’s tag-along presence, while

Not welcome either, a kind

Of substitute in love’s vacant place at your table.

A stand in, a place-

holder. You may not be feeling

love anymore, but you feel something. 

And for a time, grief will channel your pain,

by asking you questions, and making

You face your broken new reality;

Allowing you the space to accept the possibility

That who you were before this loss

is also gone.

This guest that offers insight, 

while needed for a time, is not always right.

At least not when it outstays it’s welcome.

Because when these pieces of wisdom

about pain and rejection stay too long

You may begin to believe that they are all

You will ever feel again. But just as something good passed

away, so can sadness.

To allow that though, you will have to choose 

to be happy again. You will have to lose

again, a comfort you’ve relied 

on to cope. Because however unfair it may seem, 

loss needs no permission, but hope 

must be invited to have a place in your home.

You may have to choose to be still lonelier, before you can be happier.

I once heard it said that “if you don’t heal 

your wounds, you will bleed

On those who never cut you”. 

And while “the pain done to you 

is not your fault, your healing 

is your responsibility”.

So no matter how empty it feels to let go of pain’s temporary relief, 

you will at some point have to send Grief 

away; Ignore it’s seductive call 

to wallow forever where you are.

You are brave enough

To tell pain, “I will not accept you as a replacement for love”.