For those who have suffered the loss of a loved one, here are strength and thoughtful words to inspire and comfort.\ \ \ For those recovering from the death of a loved one, here is a collection of daily affirmations and meditations to ease the grieving process and pave the way for healing to begin.\
For those who have suffered the loss of a loved one, here are strength and thoughtful words to inspire and comfort.
January 1\ I put down these memorandums of my affections\ In honor of tenderness,\ in honor of all of those who have been\ Conscripted into the brotherhood\ Of loss . . .\ \ -- Edward Hirsch\ When we are drawn into the brotherhood or sisterhood of loss, tenderness seems to be our natural state. We are so vulnerable. Everything brushes against the raw wound of our grief, reminding us of what we have lost, triggering memories -- a tilt of the head, a laugh, a way of walking, a touch, a particular conversation. These images are like beads strung together on the necklace of loss. Tenderly, we turn them again and again. We cannot bear them. We cannot let them go.\ Then, gradually, bit by bit, the binding thread of grief somehow transmutes, reconstitutes itself as a thread of treasured memories -- a tilt of the head, a laugh, a way of walking, a touch, a particular conversation as gifts from the life we shared with the one we have lost, gifts that can never be taken away.Healing After Loss. Copyright © by Martha Hickman. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.