Jan. 27, 2022 - Readings in Recovery: Today's Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 

Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022

Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:

I measure every grief I meet

With narrow, probing, eyes —

I wonder if it weighs like mine —

Or has an easier size.

— Emily Dickinson

How can we measure all the grief we feel, and how can we put up with it? Doesn’t the Grief of Death weigh a ton or more? Doesn’t it stretch out to a month, a year, or longer still? Is the Grief of Failure lighter than the Grief of Despair, but maybe longer? Isn’t the Grief of Emptiness the heaviest of all?

Whether we try to ignore or make light of it, our grief, like a ton of feathers or a ton of rocks, is all the same to us. This much is sure: if we lock our grief in, it will weigh more on us and lengthen out; if we open our hearts with weeping and words, others will help carry it away.

What old sadness can I let go of by sharing it today?

Hazelden Foundation