Grief is mourning the passing of a given appearance. It indicates a reluctance or unwillingness to accept the fact that form, appearance and constellation are per definition subject to change and transformation. The reason is that the underlying stream of creative principles that gives rise to appearances is continuously influenced by feedback from the experiences the feelers (or: focal points in creation) are having through these appearances. That feedback changes and expands the stream, it changes the basis on which new explorations and expressions happen.
Grief is an emotion that people find themselves having after they have experienced any number of changes, but since this topic follows on the topic on death, we will look at grief in the wake of this transition.
When a person has died, their loved ones will miss that person’s presence in their lives. Even when the above is fully understood, and they have stopped asking why or feeling victimized, they will miss the contact with the person. That has to do with attuning. As long as a person is physically present, reciprocal attunement happens all the time, mostly unconsciously. The presence of a body will help to remind self to attune, adjust, take into account, etc. But when a person’s energy stream has transitioned away from the vibrational field that the physical senses are able to process, a new way of attuning is required if there is the desire to maintain contact.
Cayce has said that the bonds of love are never broken and reach beyond the door called death. Jesus said that he would be with his friends, always. People sometimes will see a deceased loved one in a dream. They may suddenly remember something that that person would say in certain situations, or they will remember their laughter or their smile. Any of these things will help in attuning to the changed energy composition that the loved one is now part of.
When you manage to stay with a cherished image for a bit and start to relate to it, you will notice that the relationship continues and the sense of missing them will dissipate.
This is part of a series of questions about life topics that follows the format of the posts about the fourteen introductory subjects in part 2 of the ACIM Workbook, the first of which, “What is Forgiveness?”, you can find here.