Heartfelt words about love and family

One of the very best writers on the web, in my humble opinion, is Joan of Argghh!. Her niece's funeral was today. Joan writes about grief, sorrow, and family in several recent blog posts. These words rang so true to me.

I know that the modern thing is to “celebrate the life” of the beloved, but I shall thoroughly entertain the mercies of Grief and Sorrow. I should like to feel their ministrations to the edges of suffering, and having exhausted myself, submit to their tender rest and release. I need to be with family so that we may cry together and curse and argue and laugh and wonder at it all only to return home and smolder with the fires of deeper love, tender new scars, and as is more likely, renewed umbrages.

It doesn’t matter. It’s family and it’s what families do, good or bad, that saves us a seat at the midnight circus of the incongruent: Life, in all its presentments and cruel consequences, is still worth the price of admission.