A New Year Prayer for the Motherless Daughter by Kinyatta Gray
A New Year Prayer for the Motherless Daughter by Kinyatta Gray
May this new year
meet you gently.
Not with pressure.
Not with timelines.
Not with the expectation that you should be “over it” by now.
But with room.
Room to breathe.
Room to grieve.
Room to simply be.
May you stop measuring your grief
against anyone else’s comfort.
May you honor the days
when missing her feels sharp…
and the days when it feels quiet…
without guilt for either.
May you learn
slowly, tenderly
how to mother yourself
the way she once did.
With patience.
With compassion.
With permission to rest
when your spirit is tired.
May softness find you again.
In rituals that ground you.
In still moments that don’t need fixing.
In laughter that surprises you.
In joy that doesn’t erase your loss,
but lives beside it.
May you trust that becoming
who you are now
does not betray
who you were
when she was here.
Her love still lives in you.
It always will.
And when the days feel heavy,
may you remember this truth:
You are not behind.
You are not broken.
You are not failing at grief.
You are becoming.
May this year hold you
when no one else does.
May you hold yourself
with the same tenderness she gave you.
And may hope
quiet, steady hope
meet you exactly where you are.
Amen.
Kinyatta Gray
Kinyatta E. Gray