Healing our Hearts
We start a new week with the focus being “Good Grief”. Today’s MotD reminds us that grief can show at any time in whatever form it wants to take. Our challenge becomes recognizing it and being present with it…without judgment, without rejection, without suppression.
I struggle with this. I rarely allow myself to feel grief…because I learned at an early age that “no one wants to see you cry”…”so keep it to yourself…or go upstairs and do your homework.”
For example, growing up we acquired a piglet. My Uncle Ray had won it as part of an auction mystery prize and was not able to care for it. So we took it in. My dad built a “doggie” door on one side of his shop that led out to a section of our backyard that was fenced in.
As time passed the pig grew to its full size of about 350 pounds. Because of my brother’s allergies we couldn’t have a dog so to me this pig became our pet. I even named it “Mystery Rainbow” because he was a mystery prize and when I looked closely at its body, they were spots of different colors all over its body.
Then one day I heard squealing coming from my dad’s shop. I ran over, opened the door and immediately witnessed a neighbor of ours and my dad un-aliving my pet. I burst into tears and ran towards the house. When I met up with my mother to tell her what had happened, her response was to laugh and tell me “Well, What did you think we were going to do with it”?
To be fair, my mom grew up on a farm, so this kind of thing was normal to her…it wasn’t for me, though. A couple of weeks later during a lovely Sunday dinner my mother asked me “So, what did you think of dinner?” I said “I really liked it. It was good.” To which she said “That was the pig.” I know she thought she was being funny but as a kid (and even now), I was devastated, ran upstairs to cry. Looking at it as a grown up, that was a cruel thing for her to do.
Writing about this now makes me realize that I still have issues about this and about crying. It’s going to be interesting (at least foe me) to see how this all plays out as we go through the week looking at grief.
How about you ? What’s your take on grief ? Do you have issues about handling grief ? Does grief pop up at inopportune times ?
BTW…Here’s the before…the front and back view of today’s puzzle piece and the pretty ceramic box that holds all my numbers from which I randomly choose each day’s puzzle piece number:
Peace & Blessings,
Maureen
The Mandala Lady
Creating Mandalas 🔆 Awakening Inner Harmony
ABOUT THE 2025 Mandalas of the Day
Throughout the year, I’ll be building one large (48”x48”) Tibetan-styled Mandala one piece at a time…one puzzle piece at a time, that is. The mandala design and the reversed puzzle side were printed on artist-quality watercolor paper. The forward facing puzzle side was printed on a 48”x48” wood panel.
Each day, at random, I’ll be painting in watercolors one of the 365 watercolor puzzle pieces, that by the end of the year will become Archangel Mandala #4. Read more about the Archangel Series. The word/message for each piece will be inspired by Melody Beattie’s book “52 Weeks of Conscious Contact”.
Ultimately, the message of this mandala is about how we are all uniquely part of the one.
Mandala of the Day 