Grief is Not Always Bereavement
Is it grief or bereavement?
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Good question.Here are a few real life events that result in grief: you get an eviction notice, retire, encounter a health crisis . . . fire, flood or wind destroys your home, you fail grad school exams, your parents divorce. What is the common factor? Each one is a loss experience. These losses open the heart to the pain of grief. This pain is deep. It occurs and reoccurs without notice. It affects our daily lives and eventually paves the way for adjustment and moving on in life or it anchors us in a rut of dysfunction. Grief is a general term for the human spirit after the loss of things, personal identity, or relationship.Bereavement on the other hand is different in that it is the reaction to the end of a person’s life. The finality of death is the excruciating adjustment to living apart from the one/s we loved. Grief becomes the inescapable miasma the bereaved must breathe. When death steals away those we love and care about, that separation thrusts us into a journey of mourning. We may be misinformed to believe there are only a handful of “stages” to grief. Our western culture has a default reaction to categorize and organize our observations. But I offer that bereavement is beyond categories. It is influenced mostly by our individual personalities, temperaments, and ways of thinking. So your bereavement and mine will be as unique as our finger prints. And while bereavement is the deepest of all reactions to loss, it is not beyond the healing that comes from an understanding and wise God. Peace, hope, love & joy are only a few of the promised remedies for our broken hearts. They come from outside of ourselves and they are as real as the pain we feel. The question is; are we willing to embrace the help and healing from the hands and heart of the One who loves us most? Pickup or send a copy of Comfort for the Day to support someone you know is mourning today. http://www.amazon.com/Comfort-Day-Living-Through-Seasons/dp/1449718825/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393898771&sr=1-1&keywords=comfort+for+the+day+by+karen+nicola
