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By John Gatto, Art’s husband

As Art’s disease progressed and we moved towards the end of his life, he became well-practiced at the art of surrender.  (He wrote about it in a blog that’s available on www.gratefulness.org if you haven’t seen it).  We regularly talked about this idea and the ways in which surrender was made real for him.  He surrendered to his body, its decreased capabilities but also to love and the mystery that lies beyond the end of life.  He surrendered to his increased dependence and vulnerability.  Together we grieved our losses — both individually and as a couple.  We grieved our inability to move more freely and walk our dog to some of our favorite places.  We grieved Art’s inability to complete daily tasks that provided a sense of purpose, and we grieved the loss of the life we imagined we would share into old age.

For approximately the first year of Art’s disease, his condition would remain stable for a couple months at a time.  We developed an adaptive pattern with each decline.  First we would simply observe it and acknowledge the change.  Next we’d discuss strategies for adapting to it like upgrading to larger oxygen tanks, moving more slowly, adjusting our schedule, etc.  Finally we’d implement the changes, restore some sense of normalcy then a few months later do it again.  When the speed of his decline accelerated, we realized that our old strategy would no longer work.  Increasingly we needed to surrender more quickly and not become too attached to his new level of functioning.  It was as if we had been living on a sheet of ice. Though slippery at first, we could eventually find our footing and restore our balance.  But then the sheet of ice was placed in a river and began to move downstream.  There was nothing that could ground us anymore.  We could no longer find solid footing amidst constant change.  For Art, each day brought something new to surrender.  Somehow amidst my focus on him, I lost sight of my own process and version of surrendering.

Now in the month since Art’s death I see that the sheet of ice has melted and I now find myself flailing about in the river.  I now have my own surrendering to do.  An important choice faces me:  I can either swim to shore and stand on firm ground or I can surrender to the currents that are now carrying me in new directions.

It only recently occurred to me that as Art was declining, I was treating surrender as a zero-sum game.  I now realize that I tried to compensate for all that he had to surrender.  When he surrendered to uncertainty, I tried to make things more certain and predictable.  When he surrendered to physical limitations, I tried to compensate by doing what he could not.  When he surrendered to vulnerability, I compensated by trying to create more safety.  These were all the right things to do and part of what allowed him to navigate his journey.  And now mine begins.

When I think about surrendering to the currents of the river, I don’t think of it as defeat in any way.  It isn’t a fatalistic giving up or being pulled under in a panic.  It is joining with the natural order of things and trusting that a force greater and wiser than me will guide me.  It is about not trying to control the currents or swim against them but to join with them in curiosity, openness, hope and faith.

So what exactly do I have to surrender to?

First I surrender to grief.  I feel fully what it means to go to bed alone at night and wake up the same way without the comfort and joy of Art’s presence.  I surrender to the physical and emotional manifestations of grief…the waves of nausea and dizziness that hit me…the sudden, uncontrollable sobs that happen in the supermarket, shower, car, or anywhere at any time.  And when I surrender to the currents of grief, I notice that they lead me to a place of love and gratitude.  When I let myself experience grief fully, I open myself up to the depth of love I feel for Art and the love he felt for me.  Yes, the sadness is crushing.  But it is so because the love was and is limitless.  Sometimes surrendering to love leads me to more grief and sometimes grief leads me to love but either way, the cycle almost always includes both.

Next I surrender to the forward movement and momentum of life.  The other day, amidst the bone-chilling cold of winter, there was a spring-like afternoon.  People shed their winter coats, slowed their pace and happily soaked in the unusually warm sunshine.  It suddenly hit me that we were moving towards spring.  I realized that we will no longer be in the dark winter of Art’s death.  I panicked.  I’m not ready to leave that time and place.  The fact that life moves on often feels like good news and bad news.  I’m not ready to surrender to the passing of time and the season of re-birth.  Yet when I begin to surrender to the currents of time, they carry me to a place of new possibilities.  As time passes I notice that Art’s footprint in the physical world starts to decrease.  Things in our house no longer look the same as when he was alive.  His phone doesn’t ring.  His mail has slowed down.  I realize how much I still want him to be seen in the world so I press down hard, as if applying the brakes.  But when I surrender and lighten up on the brakes, I feel a flicker of hope and begin to dream into the future a bit.  I stop counting the days since his death and start to look forward, beginning to open myself to the unfolding that is happening even in this moment.  Art and I had talked about this – where might I live after his death?  Might I find love again?  What places do I want to travel to that we had never gotten to?  None of the answers matter but the simple act of wondering about and embracing a future does.

I must surrender, too, to the mysteries of life and death.   In my head I want to make sense of it all.  Like countless philosophers, theologians and otherwise curious humans, I want to know what lies beyond.  I want to know where Art is and in what form.  Before Art died, we talked about the ways I might feel his presence after his death.  I’ve gone searching for him like a private detective, hot on the trail to find evidence that his spirit is here.  I impatiently look inside and out to catch a glimpse of him.  If my brain can just figure it out, I can rest with more certainty that Art remains with me.  And then I surrender to the mysteries of life and death and wonderful things happen. I shift my focus from my head to my heart and begin to feel awe – a marveling at the universe and the Universal spirit that Art and I believed surrounds all of us.  When I surrender to the mystery, powerful things begin to happen.  This requires some explanation:

I’ve always been fascinated by dreams.  When I worked as a therapist I studied dreams so I could explore them with my clients.  For several years I was in a group with other therapists where we would assist each other in analyzing our own dreams, searching for clues to our subconscious.  Art and I always discussed our dreams in the morning.

One night a few weeks after Art’s death, I went to bed and reluctantly talked aloud to him for the first time.  I told him that I was ready to experience his presence and my heart was now officially open to receive him.  I told him that I had been afraid of experiencing him…afraid it would overwhelm me.  I told him that I knew that if he had any say in the matter, he would make his presence known in a way that would be meaningful and comforting to me.  I trusted he wouldn’t make our chandelier rattle or the lights flicker, but rather come with his loving gentleness and bright smile.  And he did!

For the first time since his death, Art appeared in my dreams.  Before Art died we had agreed that I should take a trip following his death.  It would be a time for reflection and healing.  In my dream I arrived at the airport to take this trip.  The airport was crowded and as I walked toward the ticket counter I saw Art standing there, preparing to take a trip of his own ahead of me.  He turned to me and we made eye contact through the crowd and smiled.  Neither one of us panicked or ran towards the other.  We simply noted one another’s presence, had a deep sense of connection and then he disappeared into the crowd to catch his flight.  He was wearing my clothes, as I have worn his since his death.

When I awoke and recalled this dream, it was perfect!  Our connection was exactly what I needed.  It wasn’t too intense or overwhelming and there were so many comforting symbols in it — him travelling ahead of me, him wearing my clothing and the calm we both felt.  When I finally surrendered to the mystery of death, the dream came.  I have come to believe that there is no singular or right way for me to feel Art’s presence.  I just need to open my heart to wherever the currents are taking me.  Get out of my head and get into the river and trust.

Most importantly I must surrender to love.  The wounds of loss cut deep and sometimes love feels like salt on the wound.  Grief and loss can harden me.  I feel alone and vulnerable.  Things that never were scary suddenly frighten and overwhelm me.  There are countless decisions to make and problems to solve.  Yet, when I soften and surrender to love, color returns to my world.  I feel the generosity of family and friends who surrounded us and have stayed with me in my grief. When I surrender to love I feel alive.  I feel connected to the Divine – to the universal spirit that unites all of us and is at the core of us.  I recognize that I am not alone.  I am not the first nor last person to lose a spouse.  At a time of turmoil in our country and world, surrendering to love eases my anxiety and refreshes my perspective.  It illuminates a path forward and renews my spirit, when there are so many forces that can seemingly crush it these days.

None of these things eliminate my sadness or stop me from wanting Art back beside me.  I would give anything to have these insights AND also still have Art here with me.  But I also surrender him to the Universe – I release him and celebrate the freedom he sought from his body so that his soul, in its purest form, can soar.  I feel weak at the knees in doing so, as if I may crumble.

What I also know, though, is that our vulnerability is our strength.  Art and I made conscious choices to try to open ourselves up during his illness and death.  As frightened as we were and often as embarrassed as he was, we believed that there were lessons in all of this.  We believed – and were proven correct – that the most powerful conversations and connections happen amidst vulnerability.  We often fight the currents.  We choose to swim to more solid ground.  We try to change the shape or flow of the river.  We try to solve the mysteries with knowledge and intellect.  We extract our self-worth and sense of competence from feeling as if we have regained control of a chaotic situation.  But when we admit all we don’t know and all that seems so uncertain, we become more human and accessible to one another.  We open up in a more real way and our connections deepen.

I cannot conquer grief, the forward movement of life or the mystery of death.  I can surrender to it all.  And if, together, we could collectively surrender to the deeper wanting of the currents…to the wisdom of the forces that surround us, I believe it would transform us.  It is already doing so with me.

~ by Art on February 15, 2017.

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