The news can get us down. The naysayers near us can get us down. We have a choice, we don’t have to listen to them. We can believe that the impossible is possible. We can focus on what we can do to make our lives better and contribute in a positive way to the lives of those around us. Darkness only wins when we refuse to shine our light. Light up your space. Light it up!
Grief changes us in an instant. The moment we lose someone we love, we step into a world only those who have grieved before us truly understand.
want to let go –
so I don’t give a damn about fine writing,
I’m rolling my sleeves up.
The dough’s rising…
Oh what a shame
I can’t bake cathedrals…
that sublimity of style
I’ve always yearned for…
Child of our time –
haven’t you found the right shell for your soul?
Before I die I shall
bake a cathedral.
You ask me how to pray to someone who is not.
All I know is that prayer constructs a velvet bridge
And walking it we are aloft, as on a springboard,
Above landscapes the color of ripe gold
Transformed by a magic stopping of the sun.
That bridge leads to the shore of Reversal
Where everything is just the opposite and the word ‘is’
Unveils a meaning we hardly envisioned.
Notice: I say we; there, every one, separately,
Feels compassion for others entangled in the flesh
And knows that if there is no other shore
We will walk that aerial bridge all the same.
You chose to react.
You chose to feel insecure.
You chose to feel anger.
You chose to fight back.
You chose to have hope.
Shannon L Alder
In this heartfelt episode of Journey from Grief to Healing, we explore the complex emotions that arise when we lose a loved one. Grief strikes like an unrelenting storm, leaving us navigating a maelstrom of emotions. Drawing from the poignant words of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem Ashes of Life, we delve into the universal longing and despair that accompanies loss. Yet, as poet James Whitcomb Riley reminds us, there is always a song of hope somewhere, waiting to guide us toward healing. Join us as we discuss how to embrace the adventure of living, rediscover joy, and move forward with courage and resilience.
But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. ~ J. R. R. Tolkein
Hope is with you when you believe
The earth is not a dream but living flesh,
that sight, touch, and hearing do not lie,
That all thing you have ever seen here
Are like a garden looked at from a gate.
You cannot enter. But you’re sure it’s there.
Could we but look more clearly and wisely
We might discover somewhere in the garden
A strange new flower and an unnamed star.
Some people say that we should not trust our eyes,
That there is nothing, just a seeming,
There are the ones who have no hope.
They think the moment we turn away,
The world, behind our backs, ceases to exist,
As if snatched up by the hand of thieves.
