Devotion as Disciplined Attention

Bhakti devotion is not sentimental feeling but disciplined attention. Mirabai didn't simply feel love for Krishna; she practiced it daily through song, meditation, and service. This sustained attention—this showing up again and again—is what transforms fleeting emotion into lasting transformation. In grief and creativity, devotion means committing to the work that emerges from your loss. You don't wait until you feel ready or until grief 'makes sense.' Instead, you practice: you write, you make, you explore, you return to the work even when it's hard. This disciplined attention honors both what you've lost and the creative capacity within you. It's devotion not to an ideal but to the actual, messy process of making meaning from loss. Mirabai's practice shows us that sustained attention to what matters most—whether to a divine beloved or to your own creative work—is how we transform grief from something that happens to us into something we actively work with and through.