comparison

The worst loss

you’ll ever experience

is always your own. 

Which is to say

– comparing

your grief

or trauma

or loss

to others is simply not productive nor helpful. 

Whether or not

someone else

has suffered something “worse”

than you

does not mean

you’re exempted from

your own work

of healing. 

This would be like

disregarding the careful work

of healing a broken arm

only because

you’ve learned someone else

has had their’s amputated. 

It’s poor stewardship

to let comparison

prevent you

from taking responsibility

of what is yours. 

Each of us

is tasked

with accepting our lives

with the unique contours

that shape them.

The only way to do so

is by honoring what we’ve lived –

the good and

especially

the bad. 

Once

we’ve accepted our lives,

mothered our wounds,

integrated our fullness

– only then are we

able to respond to the world

(and its suffering)

around us

from and with

our heart.