As Queen Elizabeth II said in a message to the people of the United States after 9/11, “Grief is the price we pay for love.” And holidays intensify these emotions for better and for worse. This post is dedicated to David Cline, aged 24, and to so many others who perished with him in the Oakland fire last Friday night. All young,bright and talented; eager for the next step on the staircase of life.
David’s mother Kerry sent me a beautiful essay when I first started Heronearth called “Hot Dogs and Sympathy” (click back a few times in the Inspiration category). I was looking for stories about a meal that someone shared with you at a time of distress that truly fed your soul, and she wrote about the terrible day all those years ago when their first son Riley died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. And now David. Heartbreak beyond measure.
“The holiest of all holidays are those kept by ourselves in silence and apart; the secret anniversaries of the heart.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Holding on to anger is like holding onto a hot coal and expecting the other person to get burned.”
Attributed to Buddha
“Grief, I’ve learned, is really just love. It’s all the love you want to give but cannot. All of that unspent love gathers up in the corners of your eyes, the lump in your throat, and in that hollow part of your chest. Grief is just love with no place to go.”
Jamie Anderson
“Unexpected kindness is the most powerful and most underrated agent of human change.”
John Kerrey
God Speed, beautiful boy.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for this message. A perfect way to the extend net of care with which all of us are sustained and connected. 8
Unbelievable tragedy for this family, and so many others. Heartbreaking.