Day 25 - 'SAY IT OUT LOUD'

#SayItOutLoud: Say It Out Loud is The STILL Project’s famous hashtag. STILL is a feature-length documentary film project aimed at breaking the cycle of silence surrounding pregnancy and infant loss. If you could say anything out loud about your journey with grief with the death or your baby, what would it be? What do you want the world to know? Is there a cause that touches your heart that you want to raise awareness for?

Life is a journey that we travel through together, in relationship with each other. We travel with family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, teams, groups, congregations, authorities, employees... we are surrounded by people on our journey through life.
 
So then... why are the hardest times in life often the loneliest? Why is grief so isolating, so desolate?
 
Everyone hurts. At some stage, everyone will experience loss and grief. So why can't we (myself included) travel this part of life's journey together, in relationship with each other?
 
So I would like to 'SAY OUT LOUD' - that it's time to change the way we respond to people in grief and in pain. We all have the power to choose how we are going to respond.* It's time to stop hiding in fear of not knowing what to say of do. It's time to acknowledge 'them' despite how uncomfortable we may feel. It's time that we offered ourselves and our time, even though a lot of the time may be spent in silence.
 
Let's enter into each other's pain. Let's walk the journey of life together as we were intended to do. Let's support each other. Let's take the good with the bad, the joy and the grief, the ugly and the beautiful. That's what life is about...

 


Doing Life Together...

'When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.'    Henri Nouwen - Grief and Grace by Amanda Axelby

(*) The Shaming of the Strong - Sarah Williams