By Derek Haines
My upbringing was very normal for the nineteen fifties and sixties in Australia. Boys were meant to be tough creatures who showed no signs of pain, suffering, confusion or emotion. One emotion was permitted however. That was, being happy and contented with life’s lot. The standard was set primarily of course by my [...]
By Paula Owen
Sometimes things happen to us or others we know that just don’t seem fair. Why must we go through this grief? And deep sadness? Do we really need to feel these negative emotions to give us contrast to our joyful, happy feelings?
Or are we framing things the wrong way? Are we thinking that [...]
By Dennis Bradford
The grief trap is an all-too-common outcome from serious loss or separation. If you understand it, you can act to prevent it or to minimize its effects.
Permit me to use the word ‘bereavement’ to refer to losing or becoming separated from something you value. It could be the death of a parent, spouse, [...]
By Steve Wickham
Many people have grieved significantly. I say many because up until 2003 I hadn’t. A broken marriage saw to that. Yet, as I looked back over a few journal entries from 2007 I recognised not only how much I’d grown – even since then, but how much resident grief there still was in [...]
By O’Della Wilson
Grief and loss are never easy to overcome and most people just don’t know what to do to assist others in their grief. Often times, we simply state “I know this is a difficult time for you right now, but you will get over it” or we say, “Time heals all wounds.”
We have [...]
By Nikki Frost
If you were not inclined to a break-up, break-up may hurt you. Your entire life is affected by a breakup; everything and every place seems to conjure up memories of your ex. You will even have to evaluate your friendships to see if they are worth the emotions caused by seeing them.
One of [...]
By Ashly Reiss
Elizabeth Kübler-Ross introduced us to the five stages of grief back in the late 1960’s. These five stages are, of course, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. They were first applied to the terminally ill and then spread to other losses. I myself first became aware of the five stages after the sudden [...]
By Harriet Hodgson
You never recover completely from the death of a loved one or many deaths in the family. If you are grieving now you know this. Death changes your life forever.
I think of 2007 as the year of death. On a snowy Friday night my daughter died from the injuries she received in a [...]
By Harriet Hodgson
My father-in-law made many close friends during his 98 1/2 years of life. So many friends died that family members thought of him as the “last man standing.” At first, Dad would get really upset when a close friend died. After losing dozens of friends his response changed. “He (or she) was a [...]
By Nathalie Himmelrich
Pain exists to promote evolution. Its cumulative effect finally forces us in a new direction, although the mechanism may be very slow. So how many times is it necessary to hit the bottom before a lesson is learnt?
Pain and suffering are very distinctive experiences in everyone’s development. However there is a very significant [...]