Peaceful Moments

After a traumatic loss - such as loss to suicide - it might seem strange to think about peaceful moments. However, those small bits of time spaced here and there during healing can change everything. They can help a grieving heart rebuild a life worth living, a life that honors the lost one and the impact that person had on those who loved him or her. When we lose someone precious to us, the loss often stops us in our tracks, but we can survive after great loss. It is possible to turn mourning into joy. How? How do we find that peace we need? Connection. 
 
Loss happens to all, but no one need endure its aftermath alone. Sharing both pain and healing has an amazing side effect. As people are comforted and gain strength by sharing their grief, many of them discover an innate desire to “do something.” They want to turn their personal tragedies into triumphs and ways to help others. This “spirit work” nourishes their own spirits as well as the spirits of others, bringing peace into their lives again and again. They find a new balance. Does healing mean forgetting about the one no longer in our midst? Not at all. Rather, the love and memories become stronger and clearer. A new kind of relationship helps us feel close to them again. They matter. Their lives matter. And they would want us to live.
 
The journey through grief is a long and difficult one. It is not about holding onto pain though there will be pain for a long while. As we become ministers to each other, we share faith – broken faith, absent faith, nonexistent faith – and often find that the lifelines we cast into the dark sea of grief for those just behind us begin ripples that continue far beyond the sound of our voices. Like the love we shared with our precious ones, like the memories of lives they once lived, we find a place in time where love outlasts the pain, even the pain of grief.
 
Each person's grief is unique. There is no timetable that is right for everyone. In this blog, I hope to help you find moments of peace on your journey and to let you know there are others like me who care very much about how you feel today.