In a year marked by considerable loss, we all need embrace grief with courage.
I usually listen back to the podcast episode that addresses the week’s blog topic, but this week that won’t be necessary. Loss entered our home again, rudely this week. The reverberation of the tectonic shift that came with another COVID outbreak sent a tremor over our family.
Cancelled sports event for the rest of the semester.
Virtual schooling mandate.
Social events pulled from our teenager’s calendar.
The loss was significant. And not but hours into this new reality in the rubble. A final blow. A relationship loss so significant that there will hardly be a space that won’t feel empty. The vastness of spaces that were once filled with laughter and dreaming, music and dancing, intimacy and security. It’s all been ripped away. The emotional pain is overwhelming.
Oh so many tears.
The only way to spread the loss out, making it smooth and tolerable is through grief. The process of mourning what is no longer and accepting what lies ahead, with fear, and fatigue, and fragility.
I could plot each month since July on our calendar by the significant loss we’ve endured. And that of course was on the heels of the nationwide shut down that started it all. There is so much pain you can see. Closed businesses. Food scarcity. Empty venues. But what you might not always see is the emotional pain most of us are carrying around in our souls. The loss is too great to bear. When we have the courage to grieve and process the loss, somehow it gets digested and expands our endurance for emotionally hard things. Which opens us up to help others in the process.
Courage is cultivated. New courage is grown.
Thanks for reading, Melissa
P.S. The SHOW NOTES from this week’s podcast had some great resources you can find those HERE. And make sure you listen in to EPISODE 33 : Courage in Grief for more insights on this topic.