Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado...
We have so much to grieve about these days, but our real communities -- the ones with whom we can share our grief -- have become so small and scattered, and life has become so cluttered that we often don't realize how much we're grieving until someone close to us actually dies. The majority of people in the United States now live in urban environments, but most people don't imagine modern urban life to be any cause for grieving. The divorce rate hovers consistently around 50%, but relatively few people associate divorce with bereavement. The natural environment of our planet is in serious decline, yet most people don't spend any time in lamentation over that. Our political system is a shambles, and most people don't yet realize that the anger they feel is part of an underlying grief that pervades much of modern life.
Most of us have a vague understanding that it isn't supposed to be this way, even if we can't quite put our finger on why or what the causes of our discontent might be. When a death DOES occur, there's an opportunity to understand the roots of our suffering and heal our hearts, but in a culture that scorns death, grieving is a much neglected and misunderstood process. It's never certain that grief's invitation to discover its wisdom will be accepted and embraced.
The Grief Recovery Method provides a blueprint for successful and healthy grieving. Many people find it shocking to use words like successful and healthy to describe grieving, but when done well grief is both. How so? It can be successful in the sense that the overwhelming and intense pain of grieving can be replaced with what I can only refer to as joyous sadness. You still miss the person who is gone. The memories are still there, and they still make you laugh or cry at times, but the pain of feeling incomplete is gone. It can be healthy because grieving successfully produces people who move through life toward their own end with grace and wisdom.
We have so much to grieve about these days, but our real communities -- the ones with whom we can share our grief -- have become so small and scattered, and life has become so cluttered that we often don't realize how much we're grieving until someone close to us actually dies. The majority of people in the United States now live in urban environments, but most people don't imagine modern urban life to be any cause for grieving. The divorce rate hovers consistently around 50%, but relatively few people associate divorce with bereavement. The natural environment of our planet is in serious decline, yet most people don't spend any time in lamentation over that. Our political system is a shambles, and most people don't yet realize that the anger they feel is part of an underlying grief that pervades much of modern life.
Most of us have a vague understanding that it isn't supposed to be this way, even if we can't quite put our finger on why or what the causes of our discontent might be. When a death DOES occur, there's an opportunity to understand the roots of our suffering and heal our hearts, but in a culture that scorns death, grieving is a much neglected and misunderstood process. It's never certain that grief's invitation to discover its wisdom will be accepted and embraced.
The Grief Recovery Method provides a blueprint for successful and healthy grieving. Many people find it shocking to use words like successful and healthy to describe grieving, but when done well grief is both. How so? It can be successful in the sense that the overwhelming and intense pain of grieving can be replaced with what I can only refer to as joyous sadness. You still miss the person who is gone. The memories are still there, and they still make you laugh or cry at times, but the pain of feeling incomplete is gone. It can be healthy because grieving successfully produces people who move through life toward their own end with grace and wisdom.
