The Heart's Seasons

Mirabai's devotional year was marked by seasons—times of intense longing, times of celebration, times of withdrawal and renewal. Her emotions were not linear or static but cyclical. Similarly, grief anniversaries are not isolated events but part of the examined heart's seasonal movement. Some years an anniversary will hit with sharp intensity; other years it may feel gentler. The approach to the date may stir different emotions than the date itself. The weeks after may hold unexpected waves of grief. This Sophos teaches us to expect and honor this natural rhythm rather than expecting grief to progress in a straight line toward resolution. Like Mirabai, whose devotion moved through seasons, our grief has its own seasons. An anniversary is not a failure if it is painful; it is not progress if it feels less painful. It is simply the heart meeting its own truth in that moment. By recognizing our grief as seasonal—sometimes dormant, sometimes flowering, sometimes pruned back—we align with both nature and Mirabai's wisdom of cyclical devotion rather than demanding a linear path.