Grieving Life's Major Losses
While life goes on around each of us every day, we live another life; a personal life within our daily life of interactions with others. Very often our inner life is plagued with secrets. Those nasty little issues we have; usually with ourselves. These are the result of losses not grieved and fears about our lives and the welfare of those we love, also effected.
Here we deal with grief. Grief triggered by issues facing many families, and therefore many businesses, each and every day. Our main focus concerns the impact of grief on life today. Addictions and family caregiving needs are two areas in which we have learned that longheld grief can run rampant; causing havoc in every aspect of one's life. While at first glance the two seem quite different, a closer look will reveal that each has, at its most disruptive core, the need to grieve a continuum of loss. When we fail to do so, every decision we make is effected by the weight of the stress brought on by the unresolved grief.
Issues left ungrieved spread their effect to our children, the workplace and friendships. They effect our ability to be appropriate as parents, siblings, employees and to be involved in the ever-growing need of the baby-boom generation to be there for both grandchildren and parents. Those issues become even more complicated when those needing care, maybe didn't take such good care of us. Or when an addiction necessitates the caregiving of child or spouse, who is now succumbing to the disease which already has run havoc in the lives of family and friends. Sometimes here too we are called on as secondary; sometimes as primary caregivers.
More and more, grief is now recognized as a major issue for younger children. We have developed workshops for elementary school children on how to recognize grief as an inevitable part of life. By giving them age-appropriate material and an understanding of the rollercoaster experiences of happy and sad, we can help them cope with everything from death in the family to their need to support classmates who are dealing with grief. Other specialized workshops are focused on helping managers deal with unresolved grief and addictions and their effect in the workplace.
While Life Goes On ~ Katherine Hempel
While life goes on
Around me
I often feel as if some form apart:
Lost though here,
Invisible though seen,
Alone–yet standing among the masses, who think me one of them.
They do not know
Within me
There is an entirely separate life:
Raging at injustice,
Sobbing with grief
Over wounds that will not heal, which ooze anew without warning.
And yet–while life goes on
I strive
To align these two worlds so I might be
Here and present,
Free to love,
Able to master the chaos within, sharing with others, valuing moments of peace.
