SEPTEMBER 12
I want, by understanding myself, to understand others. I
want to be all that I am capable of becoming...This all sounds
very strenuous and serious. But now that I have wrestled
with it, it’s no longer so. I feel happy—deep down. All is
well.
—KATHERINE MANSFIELDIt is rough going—this passage through grief. It is a time of
soul-searching. We are driven to examine ourselves, to look
at what we have lost. What from the loved one stays with
us? What do we hope to make of the rest of our lives?
So it is also a time of growth in understanding—of
ourselves and of others. It is hard work, and it is done in
sadness because we are sad.
But when the dust has settled, when the sharpest edges
of the pain have eased, we will be wiser and more compas-
sionate. We will be more self-assured because we have been
through hard times and have prevailed. A security we hadn’t
known before may mark our life. We have looked death in
the face and know that it is not all terror and confusion. As
we learn to relinquish our loved one into the loving care of
a Creator, we will feel a peace coming into our lives, a trust
in the order of things, and a willingness to cherish one day
at a time.
Through this experience I will find in myself new strength and
wisdom—perhaps, even, new joy.