There are many feelings humans share. They involve the common denominator of experience. In a year that has been like no other in the recent memory of almost all of us, this year especially, we shared our grief.
Grieving is one of the emotions that never washes over us cleanly. It is the one emotion that we get to know as lingering. It surprises us, at times overwhelms us and perhaps more than anything, it angers us. In a year when we needed human touch the most, most of us who endured loss faced it alone.
Being able to express what seems a swirling mass of energy in our throats, that lump that won't be swallowed or refuses to come out, our grief is only pacified by the currency of time. Time and the quiet space of another who gives us that time, making that space. Allowing that support is the first step. Grief is a wound that we always feel we must isolate. Protecting ourselves in order to heal. It's actually the time when we need the shelter of compassion most. A time of humanness for all.
It is different for each person. Appreciate that someone is opening themselves to your grief. A position you might one day reciprocate, perhaps already have. They are listening with their whole heart and there are no hard and fast rules. For certain there are blurred lines and a frequency that may feel disconnected or repetitive. There may be moments of strong emotion or the frustration of feeling misunderstood. We will all experience loss in life. We will all come eventually to a place of acceptance. Allow ourselves the time to be heard or the time to listen, on whichever path it comes, so to begin the time to heal.
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