Don’t Give Up in Grief

Grief manages to sap all the energy, it can change a positive person to a depressive person – I should know! But I always think of a letter sent by a great friend who wrote

“You have two choices. You can give up and let people remember you as someone who gave up, who let life slip through their fingers, someone who didn’t think enough of their friends and family to dig deep and stay around to enjoy life together in the future!

Or you can fight, you can find that inner strength to come through the sense of loss. You can live your life remembering this  poem ….

A Song of Living by Amelia Josephine Burr

Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.
I have sent up my gladness on wings, to be lost in the blue of the sky.
I have run and leaped with the rain, I have taken the wind to my breast.
My cheek like a drowsy child to the face of the earth I have pressed.
Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.

I have kissed young Love on the lips, I have heard his song to the end.
I have struck my hand like a seal in the loyal hand of a friend.
I have known the peace of heave; the comfort of work done well.
I have longed for death in the darkness and risen alive out of hell.
Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.

I give a share of my soul to the world where my course is run.
I know that another shall finish the task I must leave undone.
I know that no flower, nor flint was in vain on the path I trod.
As one looks on a face through a window, through life I have looked on God.
Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.

It is your choice but I want you to know that we will support, help and hug you all the way through the tunnel of grief. We will hold your hand whilst you move from breathing death to breathing life….we love you, we don’t want you to give up….”

We laugh about the harshness of the poem nowadays, but the harshness was needed at the time. I do care about the friends and family around, I can’t change death but I can change life.

Give up? No. Feel down at times? Yes. But never, never give up….