HUG Corner: Thought for the Week 2/19/18

Healing After Loss (Martha Whitmore Hickman)

“Should his heart break and the grief pour out, it would flow over the whole earth, it seems, and yet, no one sees it.”

– Anton Chekhov

“It is an odd feeling to be walking along a busy street, or going in and out of stores, with a grief so central and preoccupying it seems to define our existence, and yet people walk by not noticing at all! 

Are we puzzled, and perhaps a little angry, that the world should continue on its merry way? Somehow we feel the earth should stop spinning and acknowledge our grief. 

But when we stop and think about it, we don’t really want all the rest of the world to go awry, just to keep us company. We need whatever security an otherwise well ordered world might offer. Just as well, then, that these passersby don’t know the turmoil and sorrow within us as we brush past. And who knows what they may be carrying in their own hearts?

I don’t need everyone else to be sucked into my grief, as long as I can claim my own space for grieving.”