Pervasive grief is one of the side effects of the uncontrolled pandemic we currently face. People are trying to stay safe<\/a> and to make sense of what is going on around them. The sheer numbers are beyond comprehension. So, like many others much of my recent reading and writing has circled back to the process of grieving. Perhaps it is the change of seasons, leading me to focus on the seasons\u00a0that humans pass through. Or, perhaps, it is that my friends who are steeped in organized religion have been talking and writing about Holy Week. Most likely, though, it\u2019s because a dear friend of mine recently lost a long battle with a non-Covid illness.<\/p>\n

She died as she lived \u2014 \u00a0with grace and good humor. And this wretched disease kept many of us from being able to support her or her family as fully as we would have liked. We were afraid of incapacitating them by passing along the voracious virus.<\/p>\n

We marked her passing with phone calls, cards, and Facebook posts. And like most of the people who have recently lost loved ones, no calling hours or funeral for this grieving group. Emotional pain without the roadmap of customs is a tough pill to swallow.<\/p>\n

This experience is helping me beging to understand and appreciate the importance of ritual and gathering as a step in the grieving process. Condolences. Story-telling. Receptions that sometimes go on long enough to break out in laughter… all gone. \u00a0And, as I start to try to generalize my experience to that of thousands of other families around the world, my heart breaks for them. This is hard.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just the funerals we are missing. Passover seders and Easter egg hunts. St Patrick\u2019s day parades. Amelia Island\u2019s famous\u00a0Shrimp festival.<\/a> Birthday parties. Going out for coffee dates. Volunteer gigs. Grocery shopping and haircuts.\u00a0Baseball season.<\/a> Rituals are designed to ground and connect us. To give us hope. The absence of ritual contributes to the chaos. Chaos and darkness are a powerful combination.<\/p>\n

I have only questions at this point\u2014 the best I can do is open the conversation. (Please add your observations in the comment section below.)<\/p>\n

Here is what some others have to offer on the grieving process.<\/p>\n

I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death. ~ Robert Fulghum<\/a><\/p>\n

Something that is loved is never lost. ~ Toni \u00a0Morrison<\/a><\/p>\n

Grief is a process, not a state. ~ Anne Grant<\/p>\n

There is no grief like the grief that does not speak. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<\/p>\n

How lucky I am to have something that make saying goodbye so hard. ~ Winnie the Pooh<\/p>\n

Grief is the price we pay for love. ~ Queen Elizabeth II after the September 11th attacks<\/p>\n

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[bctt tweet=”There is no grief like the grief that does not speak” username=”AndreaPatten”]<\/p>\n

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The five stages – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance – are a part of the framework that makes up our learning to live with the one we lost. They are tools to help us frame and identify what we may be feeling. But they are not stops on some linear timeline in grief. ~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross<\/a><\/p>\n

A depressing and difficult passage has prefaced every page I have turned in life. ~ Charlotte Bronte.<\/p>\n

I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief… For a time I rest in the grace of the world and am free. ~ Wendell Berry<\/p>\n

Grief can’t be shared. Everyone carries it alone. His own burden in his own way. ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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[bctt tweet=”Grief can’t be shared. Everyone carries it alone.” username=”AndreaPatten”]<\/p>\n

[bctt tweet=”Rituals are designed to ground and connect us. To give us hope. The absence of ritual contributes to the chaos.” username=”AndreaPatten”]<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

The occasion of my \u201csecond Covid birthday\u201d prompted me to take another look at this post. How are you doing? Let us know in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pervasive grief is one of the side effects of the uncontrolled pandemic we currently face. People are trying to stay safe and to make sense of what is going on around them. The sheer numbers are beyond comprehension. So, like many others much of my recent reading and writing has circled back to the process of grieving. Perhaps it is the change of seasons, leading me to focus on the seasons\u00a0that humans pass through. Or, perhaps, it is that my friends who are steeped in organized religion have been talking and writing about Holy Week. Most likely, though, it\u2019s because a dear friend of mine recently lost a long battle with a non-Covid illness. She died as she lived \u2014 \u00a0with grace and good humor. And this wretched disease kept many of us from being able to support her or her family as fully as we would have liked. We were afraid of incapacitating them by passing along the voracious virus. We marked her passing with phone calls, cards, and Facebook posts. And like most of the people who have recently lost loved ones, no calling hours or funeral for this grieving group. Emotional pain without the roadmap of customs is a tough pill to swallow. This experience is helping me beging to understand and appreciate the importance of ritual and gathering as a step in the grieving process. Condolences. Story-telling. Receptions that sometimes go on long enough to break out in laughter… all gone. \u00a0And, as I start to try to generalize my experience to that of thousands of other families around the world, my heart breaks for them. This is hard. But it\u2019s not just the funerals we are missing. Passover seders and Easter egg hunts. St Patrick\u2019s day parades. Amelia Island\u2019s famous\u00a0Shrimp festival. Birthday parties. Going out for coffee dates. Volunteer gigs. Grocery shopping and haircuts.\u00a0Baseball season. Rituals are designed to ground and connect us. To give us hope. The absence of ritual contributes to the chaos. Chaos and darkness are a powerful combination. I have only questions at this point\u2014 the best I can do is open the conversation. (Please add your observations in the comment section below.) Here is what some others have to offer on the grieving process. I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death. ~ Robert Fulghum Something that is loved is never lost. ~ Toni \u00a0Morrison Grief is a process, not a state. ~ Anne Grant There is no grief like the grief that does not speak. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow How lucky I am to have something that make saying goodbye so hard. ~ Winnie the Pooh Grief is the price we pay for love. ~ Queen Elizabeth II after the September 11th attacks         [bctt tweet=”There is no grief like the grief that does not speak” username=”AndreaPatten”]   The five stages – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance – are a part of the framework that makes up our learning to live with the one we lost. They are tools to help us frame and identify what we may be feeling. But they are not stops on some linear timeline in grief. ~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross A depressing and difficult passage has prefaced every page I have turned in life. ~ Charlotte Bronte. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief… For a time I rest in the grace of the world and am free. ~ Wendell Berry Grief can’t be shared. Everyone carries it alone. His own burden in his own way. ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh       [bctt tweet=”Grief can’t be shared. Everyone carries it alone.” username=”AndreaPatten”] [bctt tweet=”Rituals are designed to ground and connect us. To give us hope. The absence of ritual contributes to the chaos.” username=”AndreaPatten”] ** The occasion of my \u201csecond Covid birthday\u201d prompted me to take another look at this post. How are you doing? Let us know in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,8,9],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-12913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","category-self-care","category-special-topics","category-thinking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12913"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14749,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12913\/revisions\/14749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12913"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=12913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}