https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7jPs-wKTuOudloxUXJGZjlVYm8/edit?usp=sharing
So, this is the link for the next chapter of my manuscript called, "Carry On." This chapter is about grief.
It is interesting for me to consider how I would have written this chapter if I were to start over and write something about grief today. I have been working part-time at a hospital as an interfaith chaplain and I have had many experiences listening to people and hearing about grief in many different stories. I recall one patient (I have to be careful about what I say and how I say it but I think I can say this...) who was in her 80's and spoke about abuse she had suffered when she was a little girl. She told me the story as if it happened yesterday. I realized how we carry grief in our hearts in profound ways. I often hear about an experience of loss and then the time frame comes into the conversation and this loss was experienced 20 or 30 years before. My point here is that I am finding a pattern of people who have never truly mourned a loss, or they have mourned yet the grief is very much a part of their life story. There are some losses that we never "get over;" we simply learn to manage our grief and live with it.
This chapter is about living with grief. There is a chronic kind of grief that accompanies chronic illness. I don't really talk about my illness very often, however I have noticed that when I hear my voice telling something about what it is like for me to live with it I feel the emotion creeping up from my heart into my throat. That is when I know more surely that I am still grieving the loss of "something" that was valuable to me.
We all experience loss in our lives. I hope this chapter will resonate in some way with what you have experienced and can give you some enlightenment to help you carry on!
