Grief and Struggling

What we don't say can live on beyond us

There’s been a significant amount of self-violence in the news recently. So much that it would be hard to pinpoint any one situation. But it has left me with my thoughts (as most things do).

If you’re in a hard season, that is the time to lean in with the folks you care about. You are not a burden. You are loved.

It can be so hard to see the suffering in others. We’ve become accustomed to hiding it, to feel shame about what hurts, and so we mask it. But it becomes so much more bearable and fruitful to lean in with friends and family, to dissolve that pain through community.

Grief comes in many shades. You may fail to recognize it in others when you haven't seen that hue before.

Our experiences are not a one-size-fits-all trauma. So much of what we see in life has a wide range of differing color and shade, so much so that – from the outside – things may appear serene, peaceful, but we are raging storm for someone else.

I have nothing profound to share, or some prescriptive measure to alleviate suffering. All too often, suffering is meant to be weathered. But being accessible to someone else in pain can be life-changing. Make yourself available today.