A Letter To The Grieving Hearts At Christmas

To the grieving hearts this Christmas. I know the insurmountable void that you’re cradling in your patient, loving and forgiving heart feels a little too much for you to carry right now. I know you are growing tired and weary of enduring this holiday season, wishing that your loved one was here to share it with you too. I know your heart aches when happier past times flood your mind. Perhaps the void has become all too great and you can’t shift the numbness that fills your bones. However you’re feeling — it is ok. It is ok. You don’t have to be strong and keep it all together. It is ok if your Christmas this year isn’t quite as happy. You don’t have to mask the sadness and emptiness you feel when you stare at the empty seat at the table on Christmas Day, reserved for a precious soul whose presence is no longer seen but felt. You can cry. Cry. And cry. Cry as little or as much as you need to and let the sacred waters of your soul be a reminder of how much you have loved and been loved. I understand that sometimes it takes a lot of strength to talk about the grief weighing heavy on your heart, that it may feel easier to shut the world out and face this alone, and that’s ok. But please know you don’t have to, that there is always someone to listen — not fix, not try to make your grief go away or seem insignificant, but just to listen. To carry this heaviness with you and hold space for your grief.

My love, be gentle with yourself and your grieving heart, take comfort in the quiet pauses where their absence is felt so deeply and let it remind you that even with death, love is not lost.

There’s not much I can say that will lift this veil of grief you feel right now, and no words that could possibly ease the inconceivable pain that comes after loss, but I can remind you that grief — is really just love with no place to go. It is all of the love that you want to give but cannot. All of that unspent love gathers up in the corners of your eyes, the lump in your throat, and that hollow part of your chest.

Sweet soul, I offer you softness, grace, and the knowledge that you are not alone in this. My heart is with you.