February- the Month of Love? Unfortunately, for many, it could represent the Month of Grief.

In January’s Blog I wrote about Living with a Broken Heart by Gary Sturgis and to reiterate the first part, it starts off with

 “Remember what the Tin Man said in the “Wizard of Oz” after he finally got a heart . . .

“Now I know I’ve got a heart because it’s breaking.”  If someone you love has gone, your heart is probably broken.

 So how do you live with a broken heart?  The answer isn’t how you fix it or move beyond it. The skill is learning to live with your grief as an ongoing way of being in the world. It’s the way you honour that which you love.”

He continues  . . .

Random things will make you cry.  I can tell you that as you embark on your healing journey, you’ll start crying a whole lot more.  Not just to clear pain, but for the simplest of everyday reasons, and out of nowhere.  You’ll cry when you see a bird, a can of paint, an apple, or even the shape of a cloud.  

The heart is designed to grieve, it wants to grieve, it has to grieve – especially when it’s broken.

This is the price you pay for love.  The loss of the life you thought you had, the life you once knew and held so dear. Loss of a dream you believed was true.

But you can also find and feel grief in opening your heart.  Opening it to love and to new possibilities. Opening it to what the future holds.  Isn’t that what life is all about? Endings and beginnings, closings and openings?  The heart was designed to navigate you through this forever winding adventure called life.  But you have to be willing to feel, and, to live with a broken heart.

Here’s the thing, you can learn to live with your broken heart by befriending your grief.  You can discover the love that still exists around you, and share that love with others who are also living with a broken heart.”

We can be like the cowardly lion on Wizard of Oz who had a lot of fear because it takes a lot of courage to go within and befriend your grief, and, it is isn’t easy; yet, if one trusts the  process, embrace their grief, that deep despair eventually shifts into mourning. It’s a beautiful feeling when you can see the crack of light and how it warms your heart.

To be continued . . .

Much love,