Grief and the Power of Hope
February 4, 2023Worries and Fears
February 7, 2023Relationships are complicated and sometimes relationships change - many will as a result of grief. Some friendships will cease, while others will grow stronger. Some old relationships will change, and new relationships will develop. Fortunately, many of my relationships haven't changed much due to grief. However, the type of people I look for friendships with has changed - many of the friends I have now are people I met through a homeschool group. I enjoy the company of and conversation with other widows.
The truth is that my grief changed my outlook on life, death, and the world; there are things that my friends and family care about that I don't. There are things they pay attention to that I choose to ignore. They make plans and have dreams. They have goals and ambitions for this world that I no longer have. Everything I think about and most of the things I do (or don't do) are all in the context of glorifying God and hoping to share my failures and successes with others. All I can think about are heaven, God, salvation, eternal life, and rewards. Many people are not as concerned with these topics as I am now, which made conversation challenging to get through in the beginning.
Grief changed everything in my world. Nothing was the same for me, but nothing much had changed in other people's lives either. Time continued, and people eventually weren't as affected by the loss and returned to their routines. Meanwhile, I am trying to figure out how to move on and what life would look like now that the person I love is no longer with me. It was a difficult and overwhelming task for me. I had to learn to be patient with others and with myself. I had to learn to give all of my new and old friendships time; time allowed me to decide which relationships to keep and let go of. The ones to give my time, attention, and energy to at that moment.