grief is physical

and gratitude, alchemical

The Court of Death, 1820, Rembrandt Peale

The week of my mother’s funeral, we hosted visitations, afterparties, the burial. We wore black. Like sacraments, these religious and social rituals were an outward expression of an inward truth. Liturgy articulated and concretized the loss. Formal moments dedicated to mourning commemorated her life, punctuated our pain, and explicitly bound both to purpose.