Healing After Loss

MAY 21

Let it not be death but completeness.

Let love melt into memory and pain into songs.

Let the flight through the sky end in the folding of the

wings over the nest.

Let the last touch of your hands be gentle like the flower

of the night.

Stand still, O Beautiful End, for a moment, and say your

last words in silence.

I bow to you and hold up my lamp to light you on your

way.

—RABINDRANATH TAGORE

So can we ease our loved ones into the land beyond, wishing
for them a safe and gentle passage. In a holy silence we hold
a lamp to guide them on their way.
It is a leap of faith to trust that all is well, even harder to
fantasize holding a lamp to guide them, since we probably
are not ready to have them go.
But the choice is not ours, whether they go or stay. Our
choice is how we respond to their going, how we think about
it.
If we can think about it in the lyrical imagery of Tagore,
maybe that in itself will ease our pain.

I cannot know where you are going, but I hold the lamp of my love
aloft to accompany you on your way.