Week 9: The Prison Tree

“Forget the hours of suffering, but not what they have taught you.”  

We are linked in our humanity the way the earth holds a tree, so that tree can hold a nest, so that nest can hold a bird, so that bird can drop a seed that will in time give birth to the next tree.

• Week 9: The Prison Tree
• The Book of the soul - 52 paths to living what matters by Mark Nepo

The Prison Tree

Loving Ryan is an experience I will never forget. A gentle soul whose brief life changed ours. Sometimes the memories, break my heart wide open again, twisting into a deeper wound. Other times, it is a bittersweet softness that fills me with the joy of having known this wonderful boy.

The scars will always be visible after losing a child, the balm of each memory is a salve to lessen the scar. It never mends. Survival comes from the many lessons that are taught through loss.  There are countless emotions that teach us if we pay attention.

Loss is a heavy emotion that shifts inward where we find deeper meaning in our daily lives. Breaking us open to see things with fresh eyes.  Our destination may be the same, but the path we take is always different as we move through pain. Each of us unraveling at our own pace, relearning how to live again. 

Death sends us on a quest for answers, a timeline of grief, a map to a destination. Our faith is the only thing we have. There are no answers, we have to grieve and feel and unravel all that once held meaning, and then maybe, we can begin our journey back.

If I had experienced different things, I would have different things to say. ~Mark Nepo