Grief is a part of life. But did you know that grief recovery is also important?
Vashti's House friend Lori shares a story of her grief, grief recovery, and the joy that can follow. Don't let your grief go unharvested of the growth and joy it can bring into your life.
Grief is a tricky thing. It can swoop in from out of nowhere and take you from giddy to gutted in no time.
I'm not here to tell you HOW to deal with it - but deal with it, you should. Deal with it for YOUR sake.
I took this picture 2 years ago as I was wrapping up a chapter of my life and getting ready to head into a new one. I was in deep grief over the loss of my marriage. I didn't want this loss. And I fought to keep it from happening for YEARS - to the detriment of my own health (emotional, physical, and even spiritual).
I remember this day being HARD, but I see I was dressed for the day, so apparently, I still had to go about whatever business had to be taken care of. I don't remember much about that day except that I captured this picture in the midst of some of the most heartfelt grief I had allowed myself to feel, and sit with, IN YEARS. I was so busy simply SURVIVING that I had not allowed myself to break down, to cry the guttural cry, to let the tears flow freely.
Moving out of survival mode and into healing has been one of the hardest transitions I've ever done in my life... and I thought I'd already been through some doozies... but wow, soul-healing is hard, yo!
Last week, I had a surprise grief moment, much like the one in this image... I caught myself in the obnoxious Lori-laugh and stopped myself (because he used to mock me when I did that, and not in a good way). And then I stopped myself from stopping myself - and I allowed myself to dive further into the JOY of it, further into silly laughter, further into what my soul needed. I belly laughed, and laughed, and laughed... until my sides & ribs hurt. And I unlocked another level of healing I didn't know I hadn't reached yet.
Grief can take us places we didn't want to go, but needed to understand in order to heal. My two cents of wisdom for today - take the time it takes, and take care of yourself.
Lori Haraldsen
We would love to hear your grief recovery story and what important and valuable gem's you mined from the experience.
Three weeks after my dad passed away in 2023 I was in a training where the trainer asked us to share "when the last time you felt joy?". I immediately excused myself and went and had a good cry in a sad, grey company bathroom stall. It was challenging to feel anything but numb, sad, listless for many months after dad passed. I've slowly began finding joy again and asking myself, "What would dad want me to do?" Buy the concert tickets? Heck yeah. See some bears and zebras at the Wildlife Safari? For sure! Take a ride on a Jet Boat Tour? Absolutely!