I'm not claiming expertise on this one...grieving seems to be a continually easy to avoid.
Yesterday, we had the joy of moving our daughter, Drew, into her new place with her now husband, Ryan. Upon returning to our home, I felt a deeper ache than I had anticipated. This sentence ran through my mind: 'She's not coming back this time...' (at least in the same way that she has before). Though I couldn't be happier for her (and him), something inside me hurts.
I need to grieve. I think this means things like, not trying to deny what I feel, not trying to find something else to make me feel better, not trying to 'move on'. I think it means staying in something for a while and letting it take me somewhere...like through something. ...so that it can give me something else, like an unexpected gift.
There are greater losses to grieve, to be sure, than the good transition of a child into marriage. So, I feel the beckoning of not taking this too seriously. On the other hand, I'm guessing that part of healthy grieving is not minimizing our sense of loss wherever we run into it.
Grief is love not wanting to let go.
-- Earl A. Grollman, Living with Loss
Grief is a sign that we loved something more than ourselves....
-- Joan Chittister, Gospel Days
