A grief held close

 I recently told a friend that I felt like a burden. That I had been grieving for too long and maybe people were tired of holding all my tears. I told her how some said things like, “you have to find happiness in yourself” or “your identity isn’t in those things so you can move on” and so on. How quick fix slogans were thrown around and I wondered if people were as exhausted by my grief as I was…

With tears in her eyes, she responded with perhaps the most loving words I have ever heard…I was not too much, I was not a burden…but I never left her heart or mind, she never stopped thinking of me and praying for me and wishing she could somehow take the pain, wishing she could make the healing come faster…not for her sake, but for mine. I had never left her heart and mind. 

Grief is exhausting. But knowing someone carries you as you go through it, knowing their heart aches with yours and that they hold you close even when it hurts…it’s the heart behind “weep with those who weep,” we need others to keep us close when we hurt, so close they can feel it too…and somehow lighten the load.

You are not a burden, you are a grief held close and deeply loved….you don’t have to rush your healing or hide your pain, you are a part of someone else’s heart.