I wanted to follow on from last week’s thought, particularly the idea of a journey from grief to understanding.

The reason grief hurts is because there is an inextricable link between the level of pain we feel when a loved one passes and how much we cared for that person. If we wanted to protect ourselves from the pain of loss we would have to keep our love and care for people on hold.

Tennyson said that it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. If he’s right, we must make sure we show our love when we get the chance so that regret doesn’t become part of the grief.

Yes grief hurts, but it helps to share that hurt and reflect on it. That’s where bereavement counselling comes in. Then, in the midst of dark clouds, small shafts of sunlight will appear, even though things will never be quite the same again.