Call For Love Devotion - May 15

In thinking about grief, I turned to one of the darkest songs in Michael’s catalog: Stranger in Moscow. It is so hauntingly beautiful yet communicates such agony that I think its mood is perfect for a time of grief.
Just the sounds of the rain and the music call to mind the most agonizing feelings. Any of us who has suffered a loss can identify readily with the dismal picture painted by the song. I searched in vain for the joy, that one little sparkle that is often there. It didn’t appear. Just as, when we lose someone, we try so hard to find something redemptive in the situation. Those around us do, too: the platitudes come in droves: “at least they didn’t suffer,” or “they aren’t suffering any longer,” or “they are in a better place” (feel free to fill in your own favorite right about now!). People who say such things mean them as a source of comfort, when a source of comfort is not to be found.
We feel helpless to comfort someone in such pain. We want to do anything…anything to take away their pain…to make them feel just a little bit better. It causes us pain to see those we love experiencing hurt.
Another platitude we hear is “every cloud has a silver lining.” But I think, in the midst of grief, sometimes it may be important to just allow ourselves to be embraced by the cloud for a while. Physicians once gave sedatives to the family members of someone who had died, so they wouldn’t feel the pain. But we’ve come to learn that feeling the pain, surprisingly, is a good thing: it reminds us that we are alive and that we know how to love.
Kahlil Gibran wrote:
"Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the self-same well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears…The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain...you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy. Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced."

The song fades away at the end, perhaps telling us that pain does not often go away suddenly but disappears gently.
Oh, and I found the sparkle in the song: it’s the voice of the singer.

~ Diana Foley
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