ENCOURAGEMENT AS YOU WALK THE GRIEF JOURNEY


ENCOURAGEMENT AS YOU WALK THE GRIEF JOURNEY

Walking inside grief oftentimes feels like an unending journey to nowhere; yet, every single step you take every single day can take you to a different place in the grief journey.  Some days the steps feel like you are moving forward, finding solace in memories, recalling moments of grace and laughter and fun.  Other days, it feels like you’re haunted taking hundreds of steps backwards, feeling guilt over lost moments not captured heavily laden with regret because there is no “do-over.”  Some days the steps lead to nowhere and feelings of loss and lost take over.

Be assured that every step we take inside the grief journey will take us closer to this place called peace.  It may take a year…two years…three or more.  That’s okay.  Each person will walk through grief at their own pace because of individual feelings and experiences.  Eventually, how we choose to grieve and how hard the journey can become is your decision.  If you fight grief, grief will fight back.  If you choose to lose yourself in your grief, grief will become lost in you.  If you decide to stay angry and hurt, anger and hurt will multiply inside of you.  The path toward finding peace isn’t about getting over losing your loved one – as they saying goes…you get through it.  You will always feel a deep sadness about losing them.  Grief is a journey about recovering from the intensity of that loss.  

A couple of suggestions that can help ease the difficult journey through grief is not to focus so much on how your loved one died, but focus on how they lived.  This vantage point can and will soften the walk and oftentimes ease the intensity of the pain.  Also, think about your loved one’s meaning and purpose in their life and what they valued or the joy they brought can also inspire and bring back into you valuing your own meaning and purpose and spreading your joy.

Stick to staying the course toward moving forward in the grief journey.  Fix your eyes on what you want in the end.  Know that the intensity, heartbreak, and loneliness will lessen as you continue down that holy road with hope in your heart and determination in your steps.  

"Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze on what lies before you.  Ensure that the path you tread is level, and then your ways will be sure." Proverbs 4:25-26

For more information visit https://www.chaplainmary.net/
Or check out my book:

https://www.amazon.com/Skirting-Thin-Veil-Meaningful-Life-Changing

Photo by Chaplain Mary in Jerusalem - the steps Christ walked 

Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 13, 2024 at 2:39 PM

    Thanks, Mary. This is beautiful and I have shared it with some family members who lost a loved one recently. Linda O'Connor

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GREED AND GRIEF

Image
GREED AND GRIEF No doubt after the death of a loved one, money issues can arise that can cause disparity and disruption inside a family relationship.  Suddenly, folks who were scarce come out to claim their share of the family money pie.  The death of a loved one doesn’t always bring out the best in people as it can bring out emotions of entitlement, especially when larger sums of money are on the line.  Trying to deal with these difficult issues can harvest a variety of negative emotions and really can make it extremely messy inside the family system.  It’s always hard to put a price or value to one’s life after death, let alone trying to satisfy the financial quest of those who become filled with greed.   Greed is an emotion that can compromise one’s values – not value in terms of money, but the values we hold in our own self-worth.  Greed always begs one to ask themselves this question:  Is my greed really worth It? If you are dealing with fami...
Read more

HATE

Image
HATE.   We should all hate the word hate.  Hate is an extreme and real feeling people can have for another.  Hate is holding a deep hostility with such an intensity, especially when someone has been wronged or deeply hurt by another.  Hate is derived from fear, anger or sense of injury.  In the case of grief, issues of hate can arise when someone we love has been injured or died because they were wronged by another, regardless of whether the act was intentional or accidental.  The problem with hate is that it can become all-consuming and fill our minds with such negativity and darkness.  Hate can and will stunt our emotional maturity.   When someone has been wronged by another resulting in the death of a loved one, it would be almost impossible not to experience the feelings of hatred toward the person who committed the act.   But working through the multitude of feelings that hatred can spring within, there should be more dist...
Read more

GRIEF AFTER DIVORCE OR BROKEN RELATIONSHIP

Image
GRIEF AFTER DIVORCE/RELATIONSHIP BREAK-UP Grieving after a divorce or breaking off a relationship with someone you once deeply cared for means taking a different road down the journey of grief.  Regardless, you still need to take the time to grieve the loss of an important relationship.  Not all relationships can bear the weightiness of working through disagreements, conflicts, jealousies, immaturity, and a variety of issues that crop up in staying unified in a relationship that involves two very different people.  Personalities, life experiences, conflict resolution and getting through tough situations takes a lot of communication and the ability to compromise, forgive, change direction and working together no longer works.  Many couples simply have a difficult time trying to maneuver through many of those life challenges.  Still, there remains an inner sadness because what was once a love story has soured into a relationship ending, oftentimes with unkind thou...
Read more