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Our grief is like the first picture a child ever colors. It is a mass array of color–inside and outside the lines, colors going in all different directions, colors layered on top of others–it looks chaotic. The picture is anything but ''pretty.'' Regardless, we affirm a child's first picture just as we do each successive one.
Similarly, we must do the same for each other's journey through grief. Just as each child colors a bit differently–chooses colors that may surprise us or won't color certain kinds of pictures–so each of us experiences our grief differently. We must give each other permission to color outside the lines and get kind of messy at times as we grieve.
The death of someone we love and care about is never an easy thing to cope with or to integrate. Even if we have expected the death for some time, when the moment actually arrives, all our senses are assaulted and our hearts turned upside down with confusing feelings. No two people will experience a death the same way, no matter how similar the relationships may have been. |
