Underground Hope

Meditations and Affirmations on Roots and Corpses

Note to the Reader: Welcome back y’all! Well really, I should say welcome back to me. I imagine y’all haven’t gone anywhere for the past 12 weeks. I planned to take 4 weeks off between the anniversary of my brother’s birthday and the day he passed. March 17th-April 14th of every year are my blackout dates. This year, I ended up taking 12 weeks off (I’ll tell you more about that on Wednesday). I’ve missed y’all and just wanted to offer a brief word picture on hope this morning. To all of my new folks that have subscribed in the past week since seeing/hearing me talk about Grief being a Language….welcome! I’m honored to have you here. I’ve curated this little corner of the internet, so please, don’t just read, but comment (or reply to the email if it hits your inbox). I try to respond to everything. See y’all again this Wednesday.

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I’m being buried alive.

Maybe you haven’t said it like this, but you’ve felt it. You know what it’s like be minding your business and, before you know it you end up wandering into pits of hopelessness/despair/frustration where everything that could go wrong, keeps going wrong.

When dealing with your own stuff is too taxing, sometimes some background noise is the best way to drown out the thoughts that are drowning you. But as soon you do, you find yourself eavesdropping on conversations about genocide in the Middle East.

So you turn off the TV and start scrolling apps only to find that this upcoming Presidential election is closer than you thought, and you simultaneously want nothing more than for it to delay and/or all be over at the same time!

And you feel it, deeply. So you go back to try and deal with your own mess only realize things aren’t actually getting better, your problems are just playing musical chairs. The most difficult ones haven’t been solved, they’re just in a different seat. Different problems are front and center right now. The most difficult ones, you thought you solved, are dancing their way right back to you.

If you haven’t said it, now you’re probably saying it.

I’m being buried alive.

If that’s you, I hope a little word picture on roots, corpses and dirt helps you hold on to hope.

Hope: The Difference Between Roots & Corpses

Hope can be seen in the difference between roots and corpses. In other words, it’s possible to be full of heartache and full of hope.

Roots and Corpses both live in the same house. They share the same address, but that’s all they have in common.

Corpses are passive. They rot.

Roots are active. They drink.

Roots, although buried underground, have tapped into a source of life. Roots are LITERALLY buried alive. We bury the dead as a sign that their life on earth has ended. But roots don’t live, roots won’t live, unless they’re buried alive.

For roots, the act of being buried alive, is a new beginning not a tragic ending.

Four Affirmations: Two Negatives + Two Positives

Next time you feel buried alive under the weight of different tangible or ambiguous griefs, I want to you to remember these four things.

1. I AM NOT exempt from daily trials or compounding grief. (Don’t be surprised when they come)

2. I AM being buried alive. (Don’t be surprised when they don’t let up)

3. I AM NOT a corpse. (This isn’t the end for you)

4. I AM a root system. (This could be the beginning of something special.

Peace.

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