by Stephanie Elson
I recently read a message in fortune cookies, which I liked a lot. This message read “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.”
Winter is always the dark season of the year. The days grow shorter and night begins in the afternoon. It is a time associated with staying close to home. Seasonally, this dark season is tempered by building a cozy fire, lighting candles and decorating homes with miniature holiday lights. Constantly, people are looking for the light to drive out the dreary darkness.
Grief is a time of emotional darkness. Daily, I encounter people who are struggling with darkness in their own lives due to death of a loved one. Many bereaved fear being consumed by the force of their grief, and worry there will never be light in their lives again. One of the many challenges what come with grief is to seek out and find those things that reconnect you with life and cast out the darkness that comes with loss.
I hope that in this holiday season, you will be able to connect with joyful memories of the life of your loved one and hopefully ease some of the darkness of your own grief journey.
