An Attitude of Gratitude: Grief

Why oh why would I be thankful for grief?  I am so glad you asked.  Initially, I was anything but grateful for my grief.  It was a dark, dark, cloud that hung over my head.  It was an unbelievably heavy load that I had to carry.  It made me irritable.  It made me numb.  It ruled my life.

When you lose people you love, folks always feel pressure to say the right thing.  To offer the right advice.  Sometimes even to share their own stories of loss.  It can be helpful but many times it was not for me.  I just was not in a place to receive it.  Parts of me just wanted to reject anything people said.  I was not supposed to have to hear it.  That was not supposed to be part of my story.

While in that mind frame, someone said to me that my tears were just proof of my love.  When you love hard, you grieve hard.  My therapist told me something similar.  My deep grief was a reflection of my deep love.  And my response was that I suppose I should stop loving people.  Loving people has a high price.  A price that I was finding really hard to have to pay.

Spoiler Alert:  I have not stopped loving people.  I actually probably hold the people that are precious to me even closer.  I am learning to embrace my grief bit by bit.  It only exists because I have experienced the greatest loves.  And for that I am grateful.  #wepreach