A Grief Wish

grief wish

One of my favorite shows (in fact, I DVR it) is CBS Sunday Morning. This past Sunday, there was a story about a man who receives people’s secrets on postcards. Secrets that many would otherwise likely take to their grave.  It’s gained so much traction, there are exhibitions of the postcard secrets. It’s an amazing example of how one idea can change your life.

Anyway, it got me thinking about grief being a result of a secret or maybe many secrets. We tend to hold the most painful things closest to our hearts and the postcard secrets is a beautiful outlet for people to give their grief a voice.

A Grief Wish in a Bottle

If I told you to write a message of truth about your grief on a piece of paper, put it in a bottle, and throw it into the ocean – what would you have it say? What do you wish others knew about your grief? What would be your S.O.S. or your grief wish?

Like the gentlemen said in the postcard secret story (at around 3 minutes 45 seconds) about how keeping a secret keeps hold of us; I believe grief keeps hold of us, too. We hold ourselves back from our lives in work, love, relationships, and our potential. Our growth is hindered and our perspective shifted in a new, unrecognizable way that we’re afraid to step into our lives fully because it’s a path we didn’t choose.

You may be reading and thinking that you don’t have grief. You may not have experienced an emotional loss of any kind (which is grief). Although I believe that is highly unlikely, perhaps the word secret resonates with you more?

What is your secret? Does this secret cause you grief? I bet it has and maybe still does. Know that that is normal and natural. And also know that it’s not weak to ask for help – it takes courage.

Fear & Grief

You may be afraid to open the windows and doors of your mind and heart, letting all the grief out because what if changes you? Well, grief changed you, right? And that wasn’t your choice. You have a choice, though, now – in how you move forward and what is written in your life story moving forward.

You may be afraid to let go of the familiar feeling grief has provided you, somehow making you feel connected to what you lost. But know that it’s the resistance of letting go of the grief that is keeping you in the past, too. Grief may have changed you, but it doesn’t need to define you for the rest of your life.

My wish for you is that you can look back on what you’ve lost and rather than be pulled back into the feelings of the loss and allow it to dictate the present, instead, inner-peace washes over you about how far you’ve come. Rather than the positive memories being overtaken by the negative, you command the driver’s seat of the present – in how you feel, what you know to be true, and the internal perspective of the grief you choose to give focus to.

Inner-peace: that’s my wish for you.

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