I read this beautiful poem today and felt it summarises Samhain for me. Samhain lasts until the 3rd of November at midnight, and during this liminal time we have the opportunity to make peace with our dead and also contemplate our mortality.
I Think This is What We Came Here For
I think it is this we came for:
not the grief, it’s the connection in our grief’
the sharing in the vast, aching cycles of change;
not the loss. no:
the tender witness we can be in loss.
I think this is what we came for:
not the sadness, not the confusion,
when the unthinkable happens and all is plunged into darkness,
it’s the reaching out and holding tight to each other’s hands
in that darkness, and if and when it comes;
not the despair; the deep, sharp, bone scattering despair,
but the tenderness of mourning together,
of not turning aside, if and when it comes.
I think it is this that we came for:
to be broken open and still find beauty;
to face death, and still know love;
to rediscover our complete connection;
to experience fully grief and joy
and that nothing before or ahead can be lost
in these golden fields of spirit
that cradle us all.
I think it is this that we came for.
Nell Aurelia 2016, from The Earth Pathways Diary 2020.
We either become tenderised or hardened. More connected or lost. The pain not withstanding, it is our choice, to inhabit those ‘golden fields of spirit’.
@nellaureliapoetry
#samhain, #mourning #pain #healing #nellaureliapoetry
Elisabeth Brooke 