We are all grieving. We do not get over grief. We learn to live in our new normal.
In my work as a hospice chaplain, I help people to name their grief and decide how to respond. Whenever life does not happen as we planned or hoped, we may grieve for what will not be.
Too often, we are told grief is linear. As if we can move through the correct steps of grief to come out the other end or to the finish line and be grief-free. Grief does not work like that. We circle around and around. We feel better and are sad again. We cry and smile. We scream and wonder why. Grief is unique to each person and circumstance. We need to acknowledge and accept each other’s grief.
In order to invite you to think about grief and possibly think about it differently, I encourage you to listen to this amazing conversation about grief. Pauline Boss, The Myth of Closure from On Being with Krista Tippett
A Prayer for All of Us
Loving God,
You are the constant in our lives. You love us every second of every minute. From you, we learned to love. This loves that brings us so much joy also brings us pain and heartbreak. You know our hurts and our grief. We grieve the changing of relationships and we know that people are not the only cause of our grief. God, you know that changes cause grief even when we know the changes are good. While it is difficult to thank you for the pain of grief, we do thank you, Gracious God, for our ability to love and adapt and change.
We bring our grief to you-
for relationships that ended,
for chances we did not take,
for loved ones who died,
for new jobs and new schools,
for the ends and the beginnings,
for the things we are no longer able to do,
for the times we are told no,
and for anything else that causes us grief, we give to you, God.
Continue to walk with us on this journey, Faithful God, as we grow, change, and grieve. Amen.
