A good friend gave me a book and journal, "Understanding Your Grief. Ten essential touchstones for finding hope and healing your heart." I'm reading it, and have purchased a couple more books for family members. I love the way this book is written and how the author speaks to and addresses how I am personally feeling. It's compassionately written and is helping me understand the normal and necessary journey called grief.
While I'm learning a lot from this book, two things have stood out... the books definition of grief and mourning:
Grief: the constellation of internal thoughts and feelings we have when someone we love dies. Think of grief as the container. It holds all of your thoughts, feelings and images of your experience when you are bereaved.
Mourning: is when you take the grief you have on the inside and express it outside of yourself... or "Grief gone public" or "the outward expression of grief." Talking about the person who died, crying, expressing your thoughts and feelings through art or music, and celebrating special anniversary dates that held meaning for the person who died are just a few examples of mourning.
A major theme in the book is rooted in the importance of openly and honestly mourning life losses, in expressing your grief outside of yourself. Over time and with the support of others, to mourn is to heal.
"Sometimes when one person is missing the whole world seems depopulated." That's the feeling this morning....
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