HUG Corner: Thought for the Week 12/3/18

December 3, 2018

Healing After Loss (Martha Whitmore Hickman)

“…memory nourishes the heart, and grief abates.”

-Marcel Proust

At this season of the year – so filled with memories and, for most people, family occasions – sometimes our grief seems all but unbearable. And grief is often especially sharp around holiday occasions. 

But after a while, we begin to savor the recall of those gathered times when we were all together, when the tenor of the days was festive and mutually cherishing. If our loved one had a particular role in the rituals of this season, we who take over that role may feel a special bond with one who is gone.

So memory “nourishes the heart,” eases the sharp edges of grief, and whether or not we speak of it to one another, spreads its arms to comfort and to gather us as one family in the great human stream of life.

In my memory I can live with my loved one again, and be glad.

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