The True Purpose of Grief

/
The True Purpose of Grief

Grief awakens you to pain but it also awakens you to your spirit. Life was never about your deadlines or work stress, or what this or that person said, or what this neighbor or friend had and what you didn’t, or anything it seemed at the face of it. It all seemed so important at the time, and yet all along life was about something else all along, something so much deeper. We know this because there is no amount of money or objects or status or security that can bring back the person you love, nothing that can turn back time. While life may have felt empty or meaningless at times, the truth is that it never was — every moment of your life with the person you lost was filled with meaning, filled with a purpose for you to know that life is all about love.

Read More

Grieving: From Death to Life

/
Grieving: From Death to Life

There were many times when I wanted to give up. The pain was too great and immense. Loss is not just in the immediacy of it, but in all the reverberating ways in which it affects you and your life. In many ways, you must learn how to live again, how to breathe again. I am here to say that it can be done.

Read More

You Are Loved

/
You Are Loved

You are loved. You are beautiful. You are worthy. You’re not perfect, but you’re not your mistakes. Perhaps you’ve made them. Big ones. But that’s okay. We all do. Forgive yourself and use it as the soil for growth, for compassion for yourself and compassion for others when they make mistakes.

Read More

Gratitude and Growth as a Journey

/
Gratitude and Growth as a Journey

There was a moment early in my recovery in which I looked into Simon's eyes and felt so much unconditional love that I was moved to tears. They were tears of gratitude -- gratitude for the entire journey of my life to that moment in time, for all the joys and good things that had happened, but also the bad -- the things that hadn't gone right, the sadness and sorrows. I felt somehow I was exactly where I needed to be. I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude for making it to this moment, gratitude for the light that had carried me through to this life ahead.

Read More

Created for Love

/
StockSnap_58KJTVKLCS.jpg

The death of love is very sad, and in many ways unnatural. We were created to love, created for our hearts to grow and expand. When love dies, it is as if you must learn how to walk all over again. Eventually, you do learn, but it is always with a limp. Along the way, people will help you walk with this limp, and some may even teach you how to dance with it. 

The people who stop along the way to help you along will move you with their grace and compassion. They will teach you to love again, how to see yourself and life itself with new eyes. Eventually, you see that the love never died, but has only shifted, grown into something new. Something you never imagined. Something good. 

To be human is to love. It's okay to yearn and to long for wholeness--that's how we were created. Because the truth is that love never dies and it always wins. 

With gratitude,

E

An Incredibly Beautiful Quote on Grief and Loss

/
An Incredibly Beautiful Quote on Grief and Loss

While I was grieving the loss of a loved one over this past year,  a friend sent me this quote, which gave me a lot of comfort. It comes from a Reddit thread, in which a kind man gives a young woman some advice on grief and loss. Although it is well known on Reddit, I don't think it is well known outside of it, so I thought I'd post it here. 

Read More

19 Inspirational Grief Quotes to Help You Cope with Grief and Loss

/
19 Inspirational Grief Quotes to Help You Cope with Grief and Loss

When I experienced loss this past year, I found a lot of comfort in quotes. Just knowing that other people had been where I was currently standing and had somehow made it through, gave me a lot of hope. Here are some of the quotes that I found most helpful. 

Read More