The invitation

Sometimes the journey we take is not toward joy, but through grief. This piece came to me as a way of honoring that path — the choice to sit with sadness, to say “no” for now, and to trust that silence and solitude can hold their own kind of truth. Perhaps, in time, the “yes” will return. Until then, this is where I walk.

The invitation you have offered me.
It avoids the grief and sadness
that waits below the surface.
That is where I now choose to walk.
I do not know where it leads me,
but I accept this journey.
This, I am more than willing to explore.

Only through this body
do I come to know the truth.
Each step through this vessel
is what I know,
what it is for me to do.

To become an observer of all
that lives inside me—
this gift of grief and sadness
that carries me forward to
what is yet to be seen…
perhaps it is joy, I do not know.

But for now I must sit
with that gift—
the one of grief and sadness.
For this is what I must do.

I have heard
that sometimes we must say no.
And from here
the yes may come.

Perhaps you will see me there again,
accepting the invitation
you once offered.

But for now
I must walk
in silence.

Alone.

© Todd Greenberg – 08/22/25