Dear Griever,
If you are reading this, I can imagine that you are feeling a heavy amount of loss and heartache. If you are anything like most people, you feel like you are going crazy. It may feel like you are falling from the highest tree, grabbing every branch on the way down, only to have them break and slip right out of your grasp. You may hit the ground hard and wake up feeling broken, bruised, and exhausted. You are in pain right now and would give anything to have your sense of normal back. Right now, it feels hopeless.
There will be days where you are angry. There will be times of joy and sorrow. You will feel an intense longing for the past along with a whisper of hope for the future. The days will be long yet the years will pass in the blink of an eye. The tears will come and they will go. Some scars remain and some wounds heal. This process is a delicate dance between light and dark, heartache and hope, uncertainty and meaning-making, being lost and finding yourself again.
There is nothing easy about grief, no quick fix or one way to grieve. But there is grace. Grace appears when you acknowledge your feelings with kindness. The glimpse of relief you feel when you release yourself from the pressures of being perfect in your struggle- that’s grace. When you extend your family and friends patience and forgiveness, you are practicing grace. Grace shows up in the random acts of kindness from someone you least expect. Grace is when for even a brief moment, you find your solid ground.
In a world that will dismiss your pain remember to
Offer yourself the same understanding as you would give a friend.
Allow yourself to yell, cry, fail, mess up, and try again.
Acknowledge the uncertainty and proceed with your truth.
Give yourself the grace to be human.
You are in my thoughts,
Kristin
Director of Community Development & Grief Services
