Grief, Sex, Life, Love

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, poet and political activist, writes in her poem "The Slave Mother:"
"Heard you that shriek? It rose
So wildly on the air,
It seemed as if a burden'd heart
Was breaking in despair.

Saw you those hands so sadly clasped--
The bowed and feeble head--
The shuddering of that fragile form--
That look of grief and dread?

Saw you the sad, imploring eye?
Its every glance was pain,
As if a storm of agony
Were sweeping through the brain.

She is a mother, pale with fear,
Her boy clings to her side,
And in her kirtle vainly tries
His trembling form to hide.

He is not hers, although she bore
For him a mother's pains;
He is not hers, although her blood
Is coursing through his veins!

He is not hers, for cruel hands
May rudely tear apart
The only wreath of household love
That binds her breaking heart.

His love has been a joyous light
That o'er her pathway smiled,
A fountain gushing ever new,
Amid life's desert wild.

His lightest word has been a tone
Of music round her heart,
Their lives a streamlet blent in one--
Oh, Father! must they part?

They tear him from her circling arms,
Her last and fond embrace.
Oh! never more may her sad eyes
Gaze on his mournful face.

No marvel, then, these bitter shrieks
Disturb the listening air:
She is a mother, and her heart
Is breaking in despair." 

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, who was born free and later married Fenton Harper, had an opportunity to experience her own shrieks. When she married Fenton, he was a widower and father of three children. After they married, they had a child. Fenton Harper died leaving Frances a widow and four children fatherless.

We all are connected to other people. Each time someone dies, others grieve.

Grief has a growth aspect. A Persian proverb says, "One can shut the town gate, but not people's mouths."

Hannah Rose is the mother of two deceased children; Luke Shiloh died as the result of an abortion; Lily Katherine died as the result of a late-term miscarriage. Hannah Rose grieves the loss of her children, so do family members and others. Rose spoke with her sister at Ellerslie Leadership Training on April 13, 2012, about grief, life, love and God. Her sister says about Lily's death, "It tore me to pieces;" "I cried so hard and so much my head hurt." In addition to speaking Rose also blogs at http://www.roseandherlily.com.

Fathers are also affected by the loss of a child. Rock star Steven Tyler of the band Aerosmith writes in his autobiography Walk This Way about his abortion experience, “It was a big crisis. It’s a major thing when you’re growing something with a woman, but they convinced us that it would never work out and would ruin our lives. … You go to the doctor and they put the needle in her belly and they squeeze the stuff in and you watch. And it comes out dead. I was pretty devastated. In my mind, I’m going, Jesus, what have I done?”

In America since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion 55 million babies have been killed. Since China's one-child policy was implemented in the 1970s more than 336 million babies have been killed by abortion; that's more Chinese baby boys and baby girls have lost their lives to abortion than the combined total population of the United States of America and Australia. 

A lot of lost family members need to be grieved. Chen Guangcheng is also helping with the grieving process and to stop loss of life. Chen Guangcheng is married to Yuan Weijing and has two children. Guangcheng, his family, friends and others have been subjected to persecution. He became internationally known for filing a 2005 law suit against a local government for forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China’s one-child policy. Guangcheng's lawsuit was rejected, and he was placed under house arrest.

"Tejas" is the name the Spanish gave to the US state of Texas. The Spanish chose the name based on a Native American word for "friend."

Guangcheng, a blind self-taught lawyer, had friends help him to escape from house arrest in China in April 2012 and to enter the US embassy in Beijing. A deal was worked out between China and the United States; now Guangcheng lives in New York with his wife and children.

On April 9, 2013, he testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee On Foreign Affairs about his family's and other people's persecution in China and other ongoing human rights abuses in China. Guangcheng gave Congress a list of 130,000 Chinese officials involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations.

Sometimes human life begins through brutal sexual relations, but God designed for sexual relations to be beautiful. A bed is not the only place for married people to make love. King Solomon's Shulammite wife says to him in Song of Solomon 7:10-11 New Living Translation Bible,"Come, my love, let us go out to the fields and spend the night among the wildflowers."

While most martial love making will not produce a new life, a Nembe African proverb advises, "Shy semen won't give birth."

Don't be shy in marital lovemaking. All people don't be shy to speak out against all types of abortion and involuntary sterilization and for life, love, freedom, justice and all that is good like our God. Manga Messiah says to His believers, "... But you will be my witnesses!!!....In Jerusalem...and to every nation...!...and to the end of time!"