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The Other Side of Grief

Posted on February 18, 2014 - by Kim Meredith

Have you ever flipped over a colorful seashell that was wedged in the wet sand and examined its other side? You were probably first attracted by the reflection of the flashy hues of the exterior. But the smooth, concave inner surface of the vessel, which once protected life with a mirrored piece, also has a subtle beauty of its own. Now tossed up on the shoreline by the turbulent sea, it is half, not whole. The mollusk is gone along with the other matching section of the shell, making both sides exposed. There is a new purpose for it now […]

Remembering Traumatic Events

Posted on February 17, 2014 - by Jill Kraft Thompson

When I think back twelve years ago to events following the horrific car accident in which five members of my family were killed but I was spared, I recall awakening to my sister screaming, “They are all dead!” I remember looking at her blankly, not feeling anything, not even knowing I had been in an accident, and unsure of where we were. Even though I was in pain, I recall feeling numb. As time passes, our memories of the details about traumatic events change. Do I remember the accident today? No. Did I remember it just after it occurred? I […]

Being-with My Dying Dad

Posted on February 17, 2014 - by Julie Nierenberg

For our last three years of father-and-daughter life on this planet, Daddy and I talked daily to be as close as we could be. Our time together was coming to an end. We didn’t know when that would happen; we just knew it was coming sooner than we wished. And then came the news: “There is nothing more we can do.” Daddy didn’t feel like dying. He felt full of life and longing to live. He had more to do, more to say, more to feel, to taste, to write, to experience. He was angry and sad, disappointed and confused, […]

The Grief of Disability is Powerful and Life-Changing

Posted on February 12, 2014 - by Harriet Hodgson

In October, my husband’s aorta split for the second time. He had three operations in less than a week. The third one, to remove blood and insert grafts, took 13 hours. Unfortunately, he had a spinal stroke during the operation. When he agreed to have the surgery my husband understood the odds, a 20 percent chance of dying, a 10 percent chance of being paralyzed. “Your chances of having more time with your family are 80 percent,” one surgeon explained. My husband accepted the risks in order to be with his family. He was anesthetized for three weeks in Intensive […]

Reaching The Summit In Our Grief Journeys: Teachings From Bald Mountain

Posted on February 6, 2014 - by David Roberts

Trying Something New It has been said that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. I acknowledge that I am getting older (my receding hairline and shades of gray that accent my beard and hair, is evidence of that), but I remain teachable as well as open to different experiences. In fact as I become older, I am more anxious to do things that I have never done previously in my life. My desire to do new things intensified in the later phase of grief following the death of my 18-year-old daughter Jeannine in 2003. My desire for new […]

Even When I am Afraid: Trusting During Times of Inner Darkness

Posted on February 4, 2014 - by Charles W. Sidoti

What do you think it really means to live by faith? Growing in faith is about learning to trust during those times when we cannot see clearly and cannot understand what is happening in our lives. Faith is very much about what we choose to do when we are afraid. Faith is sometimes referred to as light. Joyce Rupp, in her book Little Pieces of Light, reflects on the many different ways in which inner darkness, while not something we find pleasant, is often a naturally occurring and even necessary part of our spiritual growth. She makes the point that […]

What Do Men Bereaved by Suicide Need?

Posted on January 19, 2014 - by Franklin Cook

What Do Men Bereaved by Suicide Need? Men have a chance to answer that question themselves in an anonymous, confidential survey that is available online until Jan. 31, 2014. If you are a man 19 or older who has lost a family member, friend, or colleague to suicide, please go directly to the survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MenBereavement. And whether or not you are someone who fills out the survey, please consider sharing the link with men you know who have lost a loved one to suicide — as well as on appropriate email lists. The survey was designed by the leaders […]

Phases of Recovery from Child-Loss

Posted on January 16, 2014 - by admin

The death of a loved one is far worse than any physical pain that we can imagine. I wrote a book called An Angel is Born. The book was inspired by the death of my sister’s child, who passed away in 2011. The theme of the book is parents who lose their children before their own death. I would like to share with you some of the phases of recovery that I’ve experienced with her parents. At this point, their lives take on a different dimension. Time for them is like a cog of slow grinding gears. Time flows for […]

God Hears the Prayers of those Dealing with Loss

Posted on January 14, 2014 - by Max Lucado

Derek Redmond, a twenty-six-year-old Briton, was favored to win the four-hundred-meter race in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Halfway into his semifinal heat, a fiery pain seared through his right leg. He crumpled to the track with a torn hamstring. As the medical attendants were approaching, Redmond fought to his feet. “It was animal instinct,” he would later say. He set out hopping, pushing away the coaches in a crazed attempt to finish the race. When he reached the stretch, a big man pushed through the crowd. He was wearing a T-shirt that read “Have you hugged your child today?” and […]

My Grief Process: Pain an ‘Exquisite Form of Love’

Posted on January 10, 2014 - by Elizabeth Wagele

The complete version of this was written by J. J. a year after the deaths of her daughter and granddaughter. It was published in Elizabeth Wagele’s book, The Enneagram of Death and excerpted in The Career Within You blog on Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-career-within-you/201301/healing-after-terrible-loss I write to make sense of the year since the untimely death of my daughter and my 11-year-old granddaughter in a single car accident. I’ve known for a long time that life is a preparation for death. Still, I get confused and long for someone in my wandering to show me a clear path. I know the […]