Self-Care Tip #283 – Find the treasure in your grief while celebrating life.
Today is my daughter’s sixth birthday. If ever there was a person who doubled the love she received, it is this chid. She is all passion. Yes, both ways, but that isn’t to judge. Just, there is so little I can offer in words to describe her power of self.
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Tonight, we pushed two twin beds together so she and I could sleep beside each other. Her sister slept nearby on another twin bed. Her brother set his bed up in the closet. (I know.)
If I wasn’t so tired, old and broke, I might be made vulnerable by times like this to having more kids. Since that’s not going to change, these chubs are what we will stick with. Happily.
My mind is turned toward God by this girl. I somehow arrive in the moment praying when with her, perhaps for strength and patience or for humility and gratitude. I learn from her.
Mommy, when I’m scared I talk to Jesus.
Often in times like this, I think of my niece, dead now six years, and how her parents and we wanted what was, what was stripped. Still grieving and still living the life with us and in us, our braided thoughts and emotions easily lose their flow.
But today I have this clarity. My niece is gone now six years and ten days. Today my daughter is six years old. Today I am sleeping with my three children. Today I know that this is precious but this is not all we want. We want what comes after our living years. We want to let loose to Love the grief and the life; to untangle. Not more. Not less. But we want. We want what we have, now, although still in the unknown dimension of our forever.
In psychiatry, we are alert to grief that warps the ability to engage in life. Grief that mars the connections of survivors. Grief that becomes pathology, brain disease and a medical condition. This grief disables and, for example, in the case of my daughter’s birthday today, would dissolve my ability to feel pleasure.
It is difficult to gain access to treatment as many of these survivors have ill opinions about medical care. Such as; fearing medications will mute their connection with the deceased; mute their grief, or in other words, tribute/offering to the deceased; take away the personal punishment for surviving…
Questions:
- What do you say to these weeping lives? How can we de-stigmatize medical care for them?
- How have you been able to treasure your grief and the life with you and in you?
Related articles
- How Do You Help a Friend Who’s Grieving? (marieclaire.com)
- Shades of Grief: When Does Mourning Become a Mental Illness? (scientificamerican.com)
- Healing Your Grief – Why We Need Memorial Day (psychologytoday.com)
- When does grief become a mental illness? (tricitypsychology.com)