HUG Corner: Thought for the Week 4/15/19

Healing After Loss (Martha Whitmore Hickman)

“The plant grows in the mist and under clouds as truly as under sunshine.”

– William Ellery Channing

After a traumatic event such as a the loss of a loved one, we may feel as though our life has stopped. Nothing can go forward after this. What sense can we make of the rest of our lives?

Fortunately, life will pull us along, whether or not we give it our blessing. And one day, like a storm that passes, we will see light again and realize that during all the time we felt lost in darkness and confusion, processes of healing and growth were doing their slow and often silent work. We have not lost time at all, but like the seed that has lain apparently inert in the ground all winter and now is ready to begin its springtime dance, we have been moved along in stead and unseen ways into a new life. Like the butterfly emerging from the cocoon after a long darkness, we will shake caterpillar dust from our wings and realize we can fly.

Sometimes I feel frozen in place, as though I will never move or grow again. But at all times, One who is higher than I is leading me through this dark land.