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Small Mourning Pieces No time to prepare Shoved over cliff by sorrows Float down now, gently Grief comes as strong waves Tide that never seems to ebb Let it wash your soul Nasty Opponent Grief punches all breath away Never a fair fight No time for Heroes Pain strips away a brave face Wear no […]
Continue ReadingThe Widow’s Lament In Springtime Sorrow is my own yard where the new grass flames as it has flamed often before but not with the cold fire that closes round me this year. Thirty-five years I lived with my husband. The plum tree is white today with masses of flowers. Masses of flowers load the […]
Continue Reading[Editor: a 27 year-old first year medical student was given the assignment of writing a personal reflection on an encounter he or a family member had with the healthcare system and what he might have learned from it. I thought it would be helpful to those who have lost someone to terminal cancer and wonder […]
Continue ReadingAbove all, be at ease, be as natural and spacious as possible. Slip quietly out of the noose of your habitual anxious self, release all grasping, and relax into your true nature. Think of your ordinary emotional, thought-ridden self as a block of ice or a slab of butter left out in the sun. If […]
Continue ReadingOn Joy and Sorrow Kahlil Gibran Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your […]
Continue Reading[Editor] I encountered this prayer/poem/song during a High Holy Day service last week. It was new to me, and I found it incredibly comforting. An Unending Love We are loved by an unending love. We are embraced by arms that find us even when we are hidden from ourselves. We are touched by […]
Continue ReadingIn the beginning of 2014, I started writing for AfterTalk about grieving for a father. I did it to appease a family friend. Back then, I think we had three people who wrote the blog posts on the site, and the other two were actively running it. Some of you didn’t know me then, and […]
Continue Reading[Editor] The expression ,”Grief is the price for love” is erroneously attributed to Queen Elizabeth; but the quote comes from a longer passage by Dr Colin Murray Parkes, a British psychiatrist and a pioneer in this field. The Queen popularized it, but Dr Parkes’ full quote is eloquent and wise and deserves to be acknowledged.The full quote […]
Continue Reading“She closed her eyes, silently continuing the pleas that she be given words that might soothe, words that would begin the healing of bereaved parents. She had seen, when she entered the kitchen, the chasm of sorrow that divided man and wife already, each deep in their own wretched suffering, neither knowing what to say […]
Continue Reading“Before I lost my father, I never understood the rituals surrounding funerals: the wake, the service itself, the reception afterward, the dinners prepared by well-meaning friends and delivered in plastic containers, even the popular habit of making poster boards filled with photos of the dear departed. But now I know why we do those things. […]
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