Judah Halevi was a Jewish poet, living in Spain about a thousand years ago. He left us a beautiful poem that I think captures the essence of grief. The translation has been attributed to Chaim Stern, around 1930.
It’s a fearful thing to love
what death can touch.
A fearful thing to love,
hope, dream: to be —
to be, and oh! to lose.
A thing for fools this, and
a holy thing,
a holy thing to love.
For
your life has lived in me,
your laugh once lifted me,
your word was a gift to me.
To remember this brings painful joy.
It’s a human thing, love,
a holy thing,
to love
what death has touched.
For more of his poetry, click here.
Published by Keith R Wilson
I'm a licensed mental health counselor and certified alcohol and substance abuse counselor in private practice with more than 30 years experience.
My newest book is The Road to Reconciliation: A Comprehensive Guide to Peace When Relationships Go Bad. I recently published a workbook connected to it titled, How to Make an Apology You’ll Never Have to Make Again.
I also have another self help book, Constructive Conflict: Building Something Good Out of All Those Arguments.
I’ve also published two novels, a satire of the mental health field: Fate’s Janitors: Mopping Up Madness at a Mental Health Clinic, and Intersections , which takes readers on a road trip with a suicidal therapist.
If you prefer your reading in easily digestible bits, with or without with pictures, I have created a Twitter account @theshrinkslinks.
MyFacebook page is called Keith R Wilson – Author.
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