Grief Is Not An Enemy

~ From The Gift of Significance by Doug Manning

At my brother’s funeral, a lady said, “You seem to be doing so well.” “No, I am doing quite poorly, thank you,” I responded. She did not give up, and said, “Well, you don’t seem to be upset.” I did not want to get into any discussion, but I had acted as if nothing had happened as long as I could, and I reacted. “If I were doing well with my grief, I would be over in the corner curled up in a fetal position crying, not standing here acting as though no one had died.”

We are doing well with our grief when we are grieving. Somehow we have it backwards. We think people are doing well when they aren’t crying. Grief is a process of walking through painful periods toward learning to cope again. We do not walk this path without pain and tears. When we are in the most pain, we are making the most progress. When the pain is less, we are coasting and resting for the next steps. People need to grieve.

Grief is not an enemy to be avoided; it is a healing path to be walked.