I feel the need to just add a bit of an introduction to this post. I am not currently struggling with grief, well nothing recent. But in the last few weeks I have seen friends and family entangled by it through losing a loved one, a job, the ending of a dream/hope.  Although I am not in the midst of it-i watch grief weave it’s way all through my people’s lives. I know it’s all too familiar grip. This letter is for those who need it now. Not as a plaster, none really exist with grief, or an explanation as to why this has happened. But as a beacon in the darkness to remind you, that you are not alone and life will find a way.

‘You try and live and love, death comes and interrupts’ Sara Groves 

Dear Grief,

I pretty much hate you. I hate the way you take things away, without warning.

I hate the way you don’t limit yourself to physical death, but include loss of dreams/ambitions/hopes/relationships.

I hate the way you isolate, and leave guilt and anxiety in you wake.

I hate the way you make me watch others I love struggle.

I hate the way when you think you have found hope again-you sucker punch and overwhelm us with the reality that life will never be the same again.

But I know something now…life does continue, and hope does remain (Sure a little scarred and wearied but its there). Love can still break in and community can reach the parts of ourselves we sometimes feel are too lost in pain.

Grief cannot strip us of memories, of love received and given, it does not relinquish the light and life that has been. It will not stop us celebrating all that we had, even if just for a short time.

So you may be a bitch grief, but you are not the end.

For ‘weeping may stay the night, but joy comes in the morning’ (Psalm 30 verse 5).

For those who are hurting.