HUG Corner – Thought of the Week 3/13/17

from “Healing After Loss” Martha Whitmore Hickman

“If you are an artist, it is work that fulfills and makes you come into wholeness, and that goes on through a lifetime. Whatever the wounds that have to heal, the moment of creation assures that all is well, that one is still in tune with the universe, that the inner chaos can be proved and distilled into order and beauty.”

-May Sarton

May Sarton was speaking as a writer. But there are all kinds of ways in which all of us make art in our lives—a splendid photograph, a needlepoint pillow, a meal, a garden, the arrangement of a room. The important thing is making something: taking words, colors, pieces of wood, seeds, or food and arranging them in a meaningful and beautiful way. In doing this, we are showing ourselves that we are not undone by the disorder our grief has cast us into. See—we can take this, even this, and weave it into our life’s fabric.

So take a step. Make something. Perhaps something like a poem or a painting to express your grief. Maybe a meal, or a sweater, is more your style. A friend whose son had committed suicide tells me that when she started to sew some clothes for herself, she began to believe in life again.

Perhaps in some new work of my hands, I will find solace and meaning for my life.