What is it about Grief & Loss that upsets us so much? Is it heavy duty emoting that we have to do to get through our suffering? Is it fear we have about opening ourselves to all this pain? Because, let’s face it, it’s hard down there, in land of grieving where all those emotions toss us around like a cork on a stormy sea.

We understand that this is necessary, at a surface level, but how we are feeling is what really counts. In that place we call Grief & Loss, is where pain dominates our life and where suffering is paramount teacher. This is really difficult, and we know it only too well at times like these. We go there because we have to, but we try hard to escape, as soon as possible.

What is necessary now to get through to end of this process? Is it simply a matter of toughing it out, or, do we have to dredge and dig and pummel ourselves along way? It’s hard to be sure what we must do at such times.

All those Gurus that say “do it this way or that way,” are they capable of handling it themselves? As a survivor, going through grief, I would want to know that, wouldn’t you? The essence of false advertising is “never having been there yourself,” is it not? Absolutely, this we all know without a doubt.

So what do we require then to move through this landscape called Grief & Loss? We seem to know this at some level, don’t we? We seem to know that deep down where our sorrows dwell, there is an inescapable reality. We have to feel this. Oh yes, it’s an ugly fact, but true nevertheless. We have to feel this pain in order to exorcise it from our bodies. Yes, we have to feel it, so we can learn that this too is survivable. Isn’t that most important thing in all such activities – to know where you are at in your own heart when you finally get to truth?

Parables and mythical stories have been with us throughout time. From earliest of cave drawings to modern writing and film parables, as guides to human experience, have been a source of inspiration throughout history. They are teachers that guide us through challenges confronting us at different stages in our lives. Parables provide us with images and symbols that crystallize human experience into digestible pieces. As we are symbol seeking creatures, parables serve to illustrate each lesson we are about to embark on. They inform, they guide and they teach.

Periodically, in our collective human journey, we have major awakenings. Our history books inform us of this; all of our major disciplines are affected. A breakthrough in science often leads to a breakthrough in human awareness. For example, “the sun does not revolve around earth,” but, “the earth revolves around sun” struck down a core belief that could not be sustained by facts. Earth-centeredness equaled self-centeredness during this period of our history and both were dealt a fatal blow. As a result, we humans became part of something larger than ourselves, a part of Universe if you will, rather than being its center. When we take a long view of our recorded history we see that such awakenings have occurred regularly and continue to this day.

With information explosion of modern times we are likely on threshold of another major awakening. The world becomes smaller as each of us gains access to new information sources via Internet; and as benefits from that expanding knowledge base continue to grow. One could argue that our collective consciousness is uniting as we abandon isolationism and move toward growing awareness that we are indeed One.