Blessed Are Those Who Mourn
- for they shall be comforted.... Jesus, Matt 5:4
Mourning, when practiced as a contemplative discipline, is the comfort that the mourner needs.
Since getting the horrible news last night, I lost a lot of sleep. I used that waking time to practice a mourning contemplation.
I quickly got in touch with the fact that my mind is crisscrossed with thick, powerful neural pathways that I've built up over the years in reaction to Trump, his policies, and his followers. Pathways carrying thoughts, catch-phrases, and rehearsed responses that spin in my head. The results of the election abundantly demonstrate what I've known in the back of my mind all along: that ultimately, these pathways lead to nowhere.
So last night I had the opportunity to lovingly examine them. At first I was overwhelmed by my thoughts - agitated by them, disturbed by them as they roared through my head. But after a while I was able to observe them as they arose, one at a time: watching them carefully and thoroughly, with the open, non-judgmental, curious attention that is love. Watching them with the eyes of God - who is that love.
I was mourning, and the mourning was its own comfort. I felt the blessing that Jesus promised those who mourn in his Sermon on the Mount.
This mourning practice became a pathway of its own - leading to enough equanimity to allow me to sleep at least for a while. I'm still sleep-deprived... as I bet many of you are, as well.
So let us mourn, and help others around us to do the same - in a way that delivers the blessing we will need during this disaster for American democracy. May our mourning strengthen our souls for the tasks before us in resistance to tyranny.