[GmaSue]

Today I "discovered" these beautiful words Alffe quoted in a post back in February~then discovered I had hit the Thanks button that day-so I have read them before, this time I will print them out so I don't lose them.


"In time, we will be able to feel the spray on our face without a fear of drowning, even to savor the taste of the salt on our lips because, in addition to the poignancy of loss come the rush of love for the one we have lost and perhaps a sense that in the mystery of the universe, we still inhabit that universe together and are tied together in a love that cannot come untied."

"What is essential does not die but clarifies," wrote Thornton Wilder. And again, "The greatest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude." Eventually, we will find our way through this particular "valley of the shadow," and while there may always be a tinge of sadness, there will come a sense of our own inner strength and our ability to rejoice in the life we have shared, and to look toward a future in which the loved one, though not physically present, continues to bless us."

Healing After Loss Daily Meditations for Working Through Grief

Author Martha Whitmore Hickman

[pearl girl]

GmaSue, for sharing such wonderful thoughts... I had chills throughout my body while reading ... still do after reading several times. That is one of the most moving sentiments regarding loss that I have ever read. I am very grateful to have 'stumbled' upon them. I feel as though I have received a great gift...

[Alffe]

"It would be hard to bear if the first intensity of grief went on and on and on, year after year. But that doesn't happen. We do begin to feel better. This may startle us. We may even wonder whether we are being disloyal to our love. How foolish! What would our loved one want more than to see us lifted from our sadness? And indeed, the truth of who the person was can come to us much better once some of the grief has passed. In the early stages we are preoccupied not with the memory of our loved one, but with our own pain.

Prarticularly in the early stages of grieving, let's not think ourselves into a future we cannot know. Whatever else it is, will surely be different from our frantic imaginings.

A Quaker discourse comes to mind on "being present where you are". It is good advice at any time but especially now."

Healing After Loss by Martha Whitmore Hickman

***********************

This is such a gem of a book that I often go back and reread some of the pages. Barbo and I were talking about that "blur" of those first weeks and months after you lose a child...most of those first weeks we have no memory of at all...that cocoon of protection from unbearable pain.

Being present where you are now and not thinking ourselves into a future we cannot know......

This little book speaks volumes.

[Nik-key]

I read those very words yesterday ((Alffe)) I love this book and read from it every day. A little boost to start my day