How Much Sorrow Can Be Shared?

Sarah and I took a long trip yesterday to gather up the belongings left behind by her boyfriend Nato at various places. It was a month yesterday that Nato left us. It was a long, sad and exhausting day. She’s a good friend, and God knows I love her. What can anyone say? I’ve been reminded that people can still say stupid things though. Nervous. Trying to lighten things up. Dumbfounded. Or just socially inept. On the one hand you can’t blame them. How often do you experience this kind of tragedy? On the other hand, there were a couple of times when I wanted to say, “Tell you what. Why don’t you do Sarah a favor and just be quite for a while?!” There was a lot of silence between us as we travelled. She brought a bunch of cds, and she said she was going to take over Nato’s ambition to introduce me to the newest stuff. Even though many shared the pain at first, the pain is most intensely felt by Sarah now. It’s becoming apparent that some people are starting to get over it or want it to be over. But my sorrowful friend Sarah has to courageously continue down that long, sad road. In many ways the rest of this journey is hers. We’ll be there for her, but the expedition before her will be most deeply understood and navigated by her alone.

The painting above is one of my original watercolors called “Lonely Winter Walker”.