Grief – The Most Beautiful Analogy Ever
This recently came across my news feed, and while it took place years ago now, I had to pass it on to our little community here.
I have posted about grief, life and death in the past, and while there must be an end to everything, there are times when it is difficult to know how to handle it, how to handle the emotion, and how to know if there is even ‘coming out the other side’ of the pain.
A popular site on the Internet is “Reddit” where anyone can post about anything and have discussions ranging from the hilarious to the most poignant of experiences.
A user posted a simple line – 10 words – and one can almost feel the raw emotion being felt as these words were being typed…
My friend just died. I don’t know what to do.
A user responded with the following…
Alright, here goes. I’m old. What that means is that I’ve survived (so far) and a lot of people I’ve known and loved did not. I’ve lost friends, best friends, acquaintances, co-workers, grandparents, mom, relatives, teachers, mentors, students, neighbors, and a host of other folks. I have no children, and I can’t imagine the pain it must be to lose a child. But here’s my two cents.
I wish I could say you get used to people dying. I never did. I don’t want to. It tears a hole through me whenever somebody I love dies, no matter the circumstances. But I don’t want it to “not matter”. I don’t want it to be something that just passes. My scars are a testament to the love and the relationship that I had for and with that person. And if the scar is deep, so was the love. So be it. Scars are a testament to life. Scars are a testament that I can love deeply and live deeply and be cut, or even gouged, and that I can heal and continue to live and continue to love. And the scar tissue is stronger than the original flesh ever was. Scars are a testament to life. Scars are only ugly to people who can’t see.
As for grief, you’ll find it comes in waves. When the ship is first wrecked, you’re drowning, with wreckage all around you. Everything floating around you reminds you of the beauty and the magnificence of the ship that was, and is no more. And all you can do is float. You find some piece of the wreckage and you hang on for a while. Maybe it’s some physical thing. Maybe it’s a happy memory or a photograph. Maybe it’s a person who is also floating. For a while, all you can do is float. Stay alive.
In the beginning, the waves are 100 feet tall and crash over you without mercy. They come 10 seconds apart and don’t even give you time to catch your breath. All you can do is hang on and float. After a while, maybe weeks, maybe months, you’ll find the waves are still 100 feet tall, but they come further apart. When they come, they still crash all over you and wipe you out. But in between, you can breathe, you can function. You never know what’s going to trigger the grief. It might be a song, a picture, a street intersection, the smell of a cup of coffee. It can be just about anything…and the wave comes crashing. But in between waves, there is life.
Somewhere down the line, and it’s different for everybody, you find that the waves are only 80 feet tall. Or 50 feet tall. And while they still come, they come further apart. You can see them coming. An anniversary, a birthday, or Christmas, or landing at O’Hare. You can see it coming, for the most part, and prepare yourself. And when it washes over you, you know that somehow you will, again, come out the other side. Soaking wet, sputtering, still hanging on to some tiny piece of the wreckage, but you’ll come out.
Take it from an old guy. The waves never stop coming, and somehow you don’t really want them to. But you learn that you’ll survive them. And other waves will come. And you’ll survive them too. If you’re lucky, you’ll have lots of scars from lots of loves. And lots of shipwrecks.
Written from the heart, this response provides an understanding that allows itself to mean whatever it needs to mean for every person who reads it; every person who needs it.
And while in my life I focus on maintaining a positive outlook, always looking for the best in life, this has moved me. Instead of pushing through pain, grief and sorrow to emerge in the sunlight and clear days on the other side as quickly as possible, maybe there is benefit in giving value to the struggle, to feel more deeply the scars of treading water surrounded by the debris of cherished memories.
Grief is so personal. Grief is different for every relationship it is for.
Please share your experiences of grief, and how this beautiful response makes you feel.