Why We Need Regular Grief Work and Healing

Pain too long absorbed dulls intelligence. Pain endured, channeled for energy, used for conscious work aimed at ending the source of pain, sharpens intelligence

Ayi Kwei Armah, KMT: In the House of Life

 

Healing our Community. This is one of the commitments that Keepers of the Way has in organizing the Annual Ancestor Celebration in Atlanta. 

It may be that most people will internally ask, why do I/we need healing? Nothing bad is happening to me.

The fact that we ask this question is testimony to how far away from being in touch with all that we suffer and have suffered. "Pain too long absorbed dulls intelligence". It also dulls any and all sense of connection that we have to each other, to nature, to eternity.

Just in the last week, the Atlanta community suffered the loss of one of its fine sons. Trevor Ogundare Small was in an automobile accident and died. That alone is enough to grieve but it is only the tip of the iceberg. Too long have we sucked it up and sucked it in, whether to be strong for others or because we think it is the only way we can survive. Too long have we dulled our memory of all that has happened to our people with the incursions of foreigners to our motherland. We think that if we are ignorant of a thing, we don't know about a thing. 

Our Ancestors knew that all events, good and bad, have some kind of imprint or memory within our DNA. They also knew that if we do not grieve then our emotions and our expressions become warped and distorted in order to live without Truth. 

We are not better people because we did not cry out under the Master's lash. We are not stronger because we did not cry when our child was snatched and sold away. We are not coping when we do not protest a police shooting or when our children are warehoused in mini-prisons called schools. We are ACCEPTANT of the idea that "shit happens", that we AGREE that we need to be controlled with force and we are to LIVE WITH IT because we have no choice. We are afraid of our own anger, we are afraid of our own pain, and we are afraid that if we let it out, in any way, we will fall apart, appear weak, or never be the same again.

The Truth is that you will never be the same again. That is not a bad thing. If you take the opportunity to begin grieving, your view of yourself and your power will change. It is hard work. It is a challenge. It hurts. The hurt leads to healing and the healing leads .... EVERYWHERE!