And even so, some days grief feels a better choice. Even so, choose joy. Yes, choose joy over sorrow, in memories hard to bare. Through tears and old home videos of cute raspy voices, choose joy. Choose joy in sacred grief. Maybe that’s it. Maybe that’s how. Maybe it’s painful sacred and we never dig that deep. Maybe the deeper the sorrow, the more strength to choose joy is given. Maybe the deeper the bleeding wound, the more delicate the pain, maybe the more sacred the journey. Maybe embracing grief now, five-year grief, allows even more joy to overwhelm the soul. He promises to restore my soul. Oh dear Lord, restore my soul!
But the soul will not be restored. Not wholly, beautifully, redemptively restored earthside. It is not finished. I am not finished. He is not finished with me yet. He continues to whisper gently into these sacred grief moments.
To choose living in spite of, or because of, the death of my son, brings beauty to life. Beauty to a life he once lived.
“At least I know where he is.” The whispered truth rings in my ears, hangs on my heart and breathes life into my soul. The sacred pain of grief. The dance. It’s smiling through tears. It not grieving because we have not, it’s choosing joy because we have. We have the memories. We have the love. We had the life of a beautiful child. And we have the hope of heaven.
***
This post originally appeared at TiffanyNardoni.com. Order Tiffany’s new book Still: When All Else Fades Away.
