6 Months of Grief Project: Day 18

Sharing Grief

This is Day 18 of my #6MonthsOfGrief Project. To learn more about this practice, feel free to visit Day One, where I explain this project in more detail.

I have a very close friend who has been diagnosed with not one, but two kinds of cancer. This would be devastating on the best of days, let alone already being in deep grief over the sudden death of my husband. I think some part of me believed that since I had witnessed my own beloved life partner die right before my eyes, I would never, ever have to watch another person die again. I filled my grief quota. No more loss and suffering after this. But of course, more people in my life are going to suffer and die, and I have to live through that. How will I do that? I don't know. I'm taking it one day at a time. I am making boundaries, even though it breaks my heart to tell this friend that I can't see him on certain days, because I can't get out of bed, due to my own grief. On the good days, I will be there for him and I will always keep loving him. But how much grief can one person stand? How much loss can one person take?

I am very aware that this project can bring up a lot around yours or other's grief and loss, I will always follow every post with some online grief support resources that have helped me. Please feel free to let me know of online support that you have found healing in your grief, as well:

Art with Grief:

• Photographer [Sarah Treanor] Takes Moving Self-Portraits to Cope with Her Fiance's Death by Jillian Wong

• Self-Portraits: Expressing Emotion Through Art on What's Your Grief?

• The Hard Romance of Grief by Mark Liebenow

• The poetry of John O’Donohue

Resources for Widows:

• Camp Widow

• Soaring Spirits International

Living with Grief Resources:

• Grief Bibliography on Grief Healing

• Teresa “TL” Bruce's What to Say When Someone Dies
• They Brought Cookies: For A New Widow, Empathy Eases Death's Pain by Ann Finkbeiner on NPR
• A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit

• Megan Devine’s Refuge in Grief

• The Geography of Sorrow: Francis Weller on Navigating Our Loses, interviewed by Tim McKee in Sun Magazine

• How to Be a Friend in Deed by Bruce Feiler in the New York Times

• 12 Things to Know About the First Year of Grieving Someone You Can’t Live Without by Laurie Costanza in Elephant Magazine

And remember, I am sharing this project on a variety of platforms, including my Instagram, Twitter, & Facebookfeeds, as well as my Pinterest page on Grief. I use the hashtag #6MonthsOfGrief, so it can easily be found on any platform. Please share this project with anyone you think might need it.

Thank you, and see you tomorrow.