by Greg Lincoln
When a person is struck by some kind of tragedy or trauma, such as the loss of a close and beloved friend or family member, the feelings and the experience they are going through have been described as “their world being turned upside down”.
Living in an upside down world, if you can imagine, is like being in the midst of chaos where everything that had been in some kind of order that you were used to and familiar with, is now disturbed, tipped over, spilled, or upset all at once.
When that happens, it is hard to clean everything up in one swoop. You may lose things, important things and you have to take time to sort it all one by one, area by area, with care and time and patience and with lots of help. And all this while bearing all the emotional aspects of trying to make sense of everything.
When bearing grief – hard, unrelenting, painful grief, the last thing you want to do is anything. You feel like doing nothing. But how can anyone do absolutely nothing? There is always something you are doing at all times of the day.
As we look back throughout the years, we know that there have been those who went through this exact scenario. How did they manage to put the pieces of their lives back together?
And we all know that dying is a part of life. We all must experience it sometime – hopefully when we are very very old, but we do not know when or how. If it never happened or existed, life would not be the most precious thing that it is.
And it shapes us, what we do, how we live, it affects all our decision making.
Now, as surely as the seasons pass by, we are nearing the time of the year of the passing of our beloved. And throughout history and across the globe, the same is happening to countless others. They are as innumerable as the grains of sand on the beach, or as the stars that shine in the night sky. Yet we sometimes feel like we are the only ones.
Something that can only be felt by you is also known and felt by everyone else in the rest of the world. It is hard to fathom.
Last week Wednesday was the 18th anniversary of the 911 attacks on our nation. The families who lost their loved ones on that day experienced the pain and suffering of losing family members and friends, relatives, and all their cherished pets and our hearts go out to them. We are connected by the common thread of what we have borne, the ultimate loss. What can we do? Our first inclination should be to pray, and that ranks as the most deepest form of love, if you think about it. We wish you peace.
