I woke up this morning with a mother's grief
Thinking of my/her sleeping children and realizing
It's still empty
The bed where once my/her daughter slept
Visions of the empty bed made our hearts race
And I snuggled closer in my blankets,
Wrapping my baby girl ever closer
She who was lying next to me because
Last night I shared this mother's grief
And knew if she had one more moment
She would never let her daughter sleep alone
I woke up this morning with a mother's grief
Thinking of the moments I/she could have gone back
to change it.
That moment of irrevocable decision
The before moment we see so often in the movies
And too rarely in real life.
I've spent this morning
Thinking of my/her daughter's depression
And I want to tell her it is a feeling I know
She did not cause it, or ignore it and could not
have fixed it.
Her journey to peace and healing
will be long, and hard, and solitary.
I hope she will carry sorrow and love
I hope she will carry sweet memories
But never guilt.
I want to tell her to leave the guilt behind.
And I want to tell her we are all there with her
Mothers in this walk of grief.
I/she/we are not alone.
