Give Grief Space

Deborah M. Jackson, M.Div

Bottom line grief is hard and heavy; like many of you I’m working my way through it one day at a time. It’s a life-long adjustment learning to live each day without someone you love – let alone cared for 11 years. When my dad died I had my mom and she had me. The pain of my loss is unique and would be unfamiliar even to my mom. For this reason, it helps to reorient persons to the reality that each grief journey is unique because each relationship, person, life, and situation is unique. Last week as I moved into a new chapter of my next, I found myself in a familiar place – a place I often went to with my mom.

In the last nine months there are many places I have chosen to avoid, yet this day I felt strong enough to pass that way. I was moved to leave a short message of encouragement for persons moving through their own unique grief journeys w/some perspective on how I view my own experience.I pray it blesses you with a sense of normalcy about the deep vacancy grief leaves inside you. I pray it sinks deep into your soul that your unpredictable up and down places represent the love in your heart. I pray you are encouraged that the Lord is not distant and even in the painful paths He’s called us to go through, He remains close and tied to your todays and tomorrows.