He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. Aeschylus, Greek tragic dramatist


It has been a long time since that horrific day, but it will take eternity to comprehend unspeakable loss. Grief is a deep wound, much like a burn, that can heal with time, but is never the same again. Individual stories of love, sacrifice and courage have emerged from the ashes of 9/11. These accounts show us that healing (with scars) does occur, in its own season, in its own way.

Interregnum
By Helen Duke Fike

The span between life and death
Can be as quick and sudden
As a puff of wind
That blows out a candle.
But the candle does not suffer
After darkness comes.
It is the person
Left in the dark room
Who gropes and stumbles.

Pass to thy Rendezvous of Light,
Pangless except for us--
Who slowly ford the Mystery
Which thou hast leaped across!

Emily Dickinson

From an Unknown Author

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you wake in the morning hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there, I did not die.

From the Bhagavad-Gita:

I am the self abiding
in the heart of all creatures;
I am their beginning,
their middle and their end.
Know that my brilliance,
flaming in the sun,
in the moon, and in fire,
illumines this whole universe.

To all those who suffer still, I send:

Deep peace of the running wave to you.
Deep peace of the flowing air to you.
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.
Deep peace of the shining stars to you.
Deep peace of the Infinite Peace to you.

(Adapted from Gaelic Runes)