I have been avoiding grief like the plague; running away from my own pain. But what is that phrase, you can’t overcome something you can’t face? Well, grief has become familiar but I have not made it welcome. As if it had no place inside of my chest? As if my emotions didn’t know they would lead me here. grief stood waiting like a patient friend beckoning me to obey. If only I would hear him, how much easier this healing thing would begin. So this next series and for the next 52 weeks, I shall write of grief. A letter of grief for every week of the year. Why you might ask would I connect myself to such a sad task?

Why Write About Grief?

To be honest, I wouldn’t, but I have felt a nudge from God to share my pain. It was in a story of a Mother who lost her son and out of her grief created a village that blessed the community- that village is called Avalon village in Highland Park, MI. Its wild that I live only a few minutes north of that village. Her story told me there was something that happened when grief was released; something good could come from something so dark. And it’s in a poem I wrote 2 years ago that this message of releasing grief as a path to healing came to me. An excerpt from a poem I wrote called ME

“What if deep love lies in the loneliest of things? Only to be discovered where the hurt runs deep, steeped in grief, transformed by its release. Something breaking so that I could be free…”

Quite often, I write as if writing in the dark. Illumination comes only after all the words are written down. Once complete, they stare back at me and ask me to interpret please? Begs me to comprehend what words have just spilled out. It’s as if the Holy Spirit within me speaks the words I so desperately need to hear, long before I knew I’d need them. So I ask myself, how long has my heart been steeped in grief? How long will I steep before addressing those wounds that cut deep. These wounds I refuse to acknowledge cannot heal without proper care. But no one cares for something they believe they have no need of;and therein lies my problem. It’s taken me far too long to acknowledge it and even longer to address it.

Embracing Grief

I believe there’s something at the end of my grief. there is something about feeling the pain, and letting it pass its course. For me, processing that grief comes through writing. the hope is that there would also be subsequent healing. I do not know the outcome of this journey. If it will truly change me as I long to be but I will never know unless I write. and if illumination only comes when my words are written down, then write I shall.

What can I learn from grief? In the next few weeks, I hope to uncover the power of dealing with my own grief and the freedom that comes from its release! I hope as you join me on my journey you too can connect with your own and release!

I wrote this January 3rd 2025, but didn’t have the courage to release then so this is week one and I will release another today.

Hope you would join me on this journey through grief.