"What is the glimmer of hope that insists on being present to us in our darkness? Is it the lingering spirit of our loved one saying, "I'm all right, don't worry? Is it our own intuition that there is more to life - and death - than we can possibly understand, that death is not a stopping place but a gate to pass through?

Or is it the unquenchable nature of life, bubbling up, blossoming, singing even in dark hours?

A friend whose son had died tells me of how, in a woodsy glade, a bird previously unknown to that region perched on a high limb in a shaft of light, and sang. And sang. She said that while she continued to have times of great loneliness, never again did she question her son's continuing love and presence, or that ultimately she would be reunited with him."

Healing After Loss by Martha Whitmore Hickman

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Reading this meditation this morning I am reminded of standing at the rail of our cruise ship in the middle of the ocean..probably three years after our Michael suicided and we were away, trying to avoid that anniversary date...when right before my eyes..a huge whale breached unexpectedly into the air and disappeared just as quickly into the water.

I knew it was Michael..."speaking" to me.

((Alffe)) Such a beautiful thought Thank you for sharing it with us.

Aw.... Very touching thread.

Im about to cry...

Thanks.

Not sure you can make out the words in the top right hand corner...

Hope... It bends, it twists, it sometimes hides, but rarely does it break.
It sustains us when nothing else can.

HOPE!!! How to retrieve it when all seems lost. Notice, I used the word 'seems' because that is the way it is. It only seems sometimes like there is no hope, when really there is. We have to go looking for it, and that requires action. Where to find it, when we lose it? In the eyes of another. In the sun, the moon, and the rain. In the wind as it blows through the trees. In the flowers that bloom or, are yet, to bloom. In the passing clouds. In holding the door open for someone. In holding a hand. In holding a baby, or helping and watching someone grow, and smile. In smiling at a lonely person. In knowing that we BELONG here and have something, no matter how small it may seem, to contribute. Just my random thoughts.....

I asked "Bearygoodie" if I could borrow this from her post. She gave me her blessings...

I am off for the weekend, I HOPE you all keep up the HOPE as you've all have given me HOPE time and time again.

(((())))

"Let's go do the HOPE, oh baby... "

If you - symbolically speaking - get

thrown into a tumbler (like a stone) -

it depends fully on yourself if you get

crushed or if you come out of it a

polished, sparkling diamond.


-Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
On Life After Death

Hope.

Hope?

It's within you. I found it, so I figure you can find it too, although it might take time and assistance.

"Hope" seems to mean many different things to different people.

Hope to me is really vivid.

I was 4 years old when I found what hope is...

I'm sort of glad I found it when I did although it's changed my life so very much. Hope kept me alive. The flowers in the garden kept me alive since I was 4 years old. I go look out there in the light every single day of my life and I see...

Life.

I LIVE.

One of the things that is so hard about recovering from grief is that it Takes So Long. And we get discouraged, not only from the continuing presence of the grief, but because of our own inability to handle it better. Just when we think we are making progress - wham, it sweeps over us and seems new again.

Nowhere more than here is it important to be patient with ourselves, not let ourselves be weighed down by the discouragement of yesterday. Every day is a new day, a fresh beginning.


Healing After Loss Daily Meditations for Working Through Grief.

by Martha Whitmore Hickman