What can help with grief? What is the greatest need a griever has in a time of great sorrow?
In the beginning, it is not words. Words of comfort oftentimes feel shallow and empty. Those that have yet to experience deep grief don’t know what to say so the words fall short to those that can only hear the deafening devastation of loss. Those that know that devastation of loss know there is nothing that can be said.
Words will come later, but in the initial moments when loss collapses your world, you need someone willing to sit with, to hold on to, in the overwhelming pain of grief.
When it is time for words, words can help when you’re coping with loss. But it is not just the words themselves that matter. It is the meaning behind the words that make all the difference. Those in great grief need to be heard and hear that they are not alone. There is great comfort in knowing your story of loss and isolation is really our common story of love in the midst of great loss.
Out of the Ashes: Healing in the Afterloss is a story about loss and life. It is a book that navigates the interior of grief through the story of a man who was once a husband and a father, a woman who was once a wife and a mother, and two children who once dreamed of life. It is a story of a man in search of where loss had taken him, and what it takes to heal after losing his family. It is a story of life lived in loss and found in love.
What kind of words can help with grief?
Words that reflect beyond a single life into the lives of all who live with loss can help with grieving.
Words that light a common path in the collective shadow of sorrow can help with grief. Words that have presence in the pain of another and silhouette our shared pain can help with grief, whether it is grieving the loss of a child, a life partner, a parent or sibling, or anyone where deep love needs to find a way through deep sorrow.
When you’re in search of dealing with death books, this is a story that was lived in the midst of both life and death, and was written to help us all in living with loss.
