dailydatewithgod

A lot of what is going on in the world right now is an uptick in the level of individual and collective grief.  We often think that grief is specifically experienced with the death of a person but we can also lament the loss of many kinds of things.  There is a lament about lack of social gathering, canceled graduations, weddings, funerals, seeing coworkers face to face, hanging out with friends at school, and so much more.  The lament is real and is important to notice how it affects our hearts.  We can feel weighed down by it or overwhelmed.  It can drain our capacity to handle ordinary circumstances.  God invites us to embrace the lament instead of discounting it or justifying why it is unreasonable.  Making room for noticing how it affects the state of our hearts will allow us to see our capacity to be connected to people, places, and things.  I recently thought about how I do not know when the next time there will be a dance happening.  Whether in a club, dance lessons in a studio, or seeing dance performed.  I deeply lament the idea that dancing in public would be absent.  Yes, we can dance in our homes and I certainly do dance around my apartment but the shared experience of touching and moving in the rhythm with another human being makes my heart sing. I lament the absence of that and while in comparison to losing a close friend to the virus it seems irrational, the comparison is not important.  By making room for whatever lament we are experiencing allows us to be present for whatever deeper experiences we will also lament. I give myself permission to lament the loss of groups of people dancing together.  I also lament when a patient in our hospital dies of the virus and may even lament not being able to watch the upcoming Top Gun movie when it debuts this summer.