A TIME TO TALK ABOUT LOSS AND GRIEF
We all have experienced the pain that comes with major deaths and losses in our lives. Yet each one of us handles loss and grief in our own way. Or do we? Are there perhaps aspects of the grieving process that are common to all of us when we suffer such devastating losses? Can we benefit from sharing ways we have handled these very difficult and very emotional times?
Grief is not an enemy to be overcome but a necessary part of loving and of having been loved.
What happens to make some kinds of grief more difficult and more complicated to deal with than others? How can we help each other cope with these as well as other losses?
What about children? Children generally deal differently with death at different ages and also that they deal with death differently than adults. Yet like us, children are individuals and cope with things in their very own and very individual ways. What can we do to help children deal with the difficult times that a significant death causes? What about the child that seems to express no feelings after a significant death? What happens after a beloved one dies? As children get older? What other kinds of losses might be very upsetting to children? How can we help each other deal with these losses? What about ourselves? What can we do to be most helpful?
Mourning lasts forever. We certainly do not want to forget the one who died, and we won’t. We all understand that life is never the same after a significant loss. This is a fact we don’t want to face, but it is the truth. But we will go on and we will find ways to comfort ourselves and to integrate that death so that we remember those no longer alive in ways that enrich us, that make us better people and more compassionate.
How to understand and to help ourselves and others deal with loss and grief becomes a task for us all. Each death we face reminds us of the temporariness of life and how precious it is. Being are alive is indeed a privilege, one that gives us a chance to keep that love alive by being able to use our sadness to pass on that love
wherever we can. What we learn from mourning is to hold onto what it feels like to love and be loved and to honor those who are gone by keeping those feelings alive when we share them with others.
This was written to invite people to a discussion about loss and grief held for the Nubian community in Cairo, 2021. Everyone is mourning someone or something. In our sadness we are together and that in that togetherness we can be find comfort, comfort others and be comforted.