Believe
Welcome to the Daily Reflection. You are invited to come near Grief and move toward healing.
Intention
Set an intention today to speak kindly to yourself, be patient, and be gentle with the process of healing.
Today I am sharing an entry from a book by Martha Whitmore Hickman. This is a daily meditation for working through grief.
Healing After Loss. Daily Meditations for Working Through Grief, By Martha Whitmore Hickman. Avon Books. New York. 1994
“Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.” (A quote by William James).
“At first we are so overwhelmed by loss that we seem powerless to do anything more than ride along on the turbulent sea of our sorrow and distress. There is no use in trying to steer this craft. It’s enough just to stay afloat.
But after a while, we begin to get some sense that we do, in fact, have some choice about which way to go.
This is often an unwelcome discovery. It is easier to drift, and people are so sympathetic to our situation when we are sad. It is comforting – and less work– to continue to bathe in that sympathy.
But our life is at a standstill, and we don’t want that to last forever.
Now we have choices to make, and choice involves risk. One of the risks open to us is to act from the assumption that life is, in fact, worth living and that we can help ourselves to confirm it. How? The whole theory of behavior modification is that if we change our behavior, our attitudes will also change. We can begin to do things again. We can make an effort to smile. We can reach out to someone else in need.”
REFLECT
Reflect on this thought as you go through your day, “I will try acting as though life is worth living and see what happens.”