THE PAIN OF GRIEF

“O’ Lord have mercy on me in my anguish. My eyes are red from weeping; my health is broken from sorrow.”  (Psalm 31:9)

Real grief is not healed by time.... If time does anything, it deepens our grief.  The longer we live, the more fully we become aware of who she/he was for us, and the more intimately we experience what their love meant to us.  Real, deep love is, as you know, very unobtrusive, seemingly easy and obvious, and so present that we take it for granted.  Therefore, it is often only in retrospect - or better, in memory - that we fully realize its power and depth.  Yes, indeed, love often makes itself visible in pain. 

-- Henri Nouwen

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