When times are so tough all over, it can feel like any expression of joy is out of place, like we need to hide our successes and our delights so as to not hurt or offend those around us. But there’s a place for joy and laughter even in the hardest of times.
What joy or triumph would you like to share?
“You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.”
― Anne Lamott
How have you been changed by the experience of grief?
When we are struggling inside it’s easy to imagine that everyone else is waltzing along with their pink umbrella, protected from the elements that threaten us. Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. Maybe they have space under the umbrella to share.
How do you make room for others under your umbrella?
“Absence is a house so vast that inside you will pass through its walls and hang pictures on the air.”
― Pablo Neruda
What helps to fill the vast spaces left by absence?
Times of stillness and reflection may not be as exciting or fun as action and adventure, but as seeds need time in the dark earth, people need times to be quiet and inward.
What have you learned from a period of stillness in your life?
