Sorrow is one of those things that is really universal. Sometimes I will hear a twit say something to the effect of, "Sadness means you have no faith!" Then I point out John 11:35 -"Jesus wept." Question His faith. Go for it.
"Hopeless grief is passionless... if it could weep, it could arise and go." EBB
"Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood, for nothing now can ever come to any good." Auden
I think sadness and even melancholy are simply part of the process of being human and having tender hearts. Feeling sad feels unpleasant, so sometimes we try to distract ourselves from the sadness. Sometimes that's healthy. Sometimes, it just creates a structure destined to crack at the most inconvenient time.
I know I do not enjoy just sitting with sadness and then when I am done being sad, moving on to something else. A hint of sadness shows, and as I sometimes worship at the altar of Activity, I do whatever I can to feel anything but sad. Or scared. Or whatever is making me feel vulnerable.
There are some things that crop up in my head, and I am learning, slowly, imperfectly, that squishing them down into a corner of my brain to rot... only creates more rot. So, when something happens that throws me off-kilter, or a thought with a comet tail of sadness flies through... mostly I can let it go, think, yeah, that was sad, or yeah, that was scary, and then it is done.
Sadness isn't good or bad, it just... is. And like everything else, passes away if you can let go.
To see a world in a grain of sand
Or Heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
(Blake)
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