HUG Corner – Thought for the Week 4/10/17
April 10, 2017
“Healing After Loss” Martha Whimore Hickman
“Out of every crisis comes the chance to be reborn, to reconceive ourselves as individuals, to choose the kind of change that will help us to grow and to fulfill ourselves more completely.”
– Nena O’Neill
We know that one does not come through a grief unscathed. What we sometimes don’t fully recognize is the power we have, after the first grief has passed, to choose what we are going to make of ourselves, bereft though we are.
In a way, we resist claiming this power. We are tired. We don’t want to be held responsible. We are hurt. We want to be taken care of, tenderly, not to be told we have to forge a new beginning.
We all know of people who, after a devastating loss, go on to reshape their lives in heroic terms. I think of Elizabeth Gray Vining, whose husband died when they were both very young, and who went on to become tutor to the Crown Prince of Japan.
We have choices to make and, as survivors of crisis, we have new strengths, new power—if we chose to claim them.
“When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade”.