Every time I walked by the box I flinched. It held the tons of sympathy cards my husband and I received when three deaths in the family. I did not need to appear at the box, including open it. A widowed friend asked me if I had re-read the cards. "No," I sighed. "I simply cannot do it."
Re-reading the cards would open up grief wounds and my friend understood this. "The day can return when you scan the cards again and cry," she said, "and you may realize new comfort in them." That day was yesterday.
I recognized most of the names on the cards,however there were some I did not recognize. But, I was aware of the caring that the cards represented. One scan, "Generally the hurt is too huge for words," a sentence I understood all too well. I was usually perplexed to describe my grief. Of course, grief had slowed my mind's ability to retrieve vocabulary words.
The box contained cards from my daughter's co-workers. A composite engineer with an MBA degree, my daughter had managed 3 production lines at an engine manufacturing plant. A group card made me cry, particularly the note from one co-employee saying he was glad my daughter had been his manager.
I'm glad I scan the cards once more because I found a memorial register one and cash in another. Gathering the courage to re-scan the cards took me nine months. This time frame is half of my grief "fingerprint." Andrea Gambill describes these fingerprints in a piece of writing with the same name, published in the October 2007 issue of "Grief Digest." "You have the right to be an individual," Gambill says, "to be completely different in some ways that from each alternative griever."
If you're grieving you've got received sympathy cards. The cards tell you that people care however, like me, you'll not want to browse them again. Ought to you do it? Yes, but solely when you feel the time is right. As my friend predicted, I found new comfort within the cards. The sympathy cards represented the thoughts and prayers of lots of individuals and and I could feel their support.
I used to be really touched by the handmade cards. One was from an artist friend and another was from a cousin who is an skilled photographer. A hand-letterd card with a quote from Thoreau touched my soul. "Each blade in the sector, each leaf within the forest, lays down its life in its season, as beautifully as it absolutely was taken up."
Bettyclare Moffatt, in her book, "Soulwork: Clearning the Mind, Opening the Heart, Replenishing the Spirit," lists twelve directions we tend to may take for soulwork living. Direction range 10 spoke to me and it says, in part, "Be willing to learn, to grow, to start over." Sympathy cards have helped me to try and do this and I am creating a replacement life. The day will return after you browse the cards once more and draw comfort and strength from them.
Author Resource:-
Dorish Hill has been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in Grief Loss, you can also check out his latest website about:
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