GRIEF is defined in dictionary.com as: “keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss.”
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross proposed these stages of grief:
- Denial: “This can’t be happening to me.”
- Anger: “Why is this happening? Who is to blame?”
- Bargaining: “Make this not happen, and in return I will ____.”
- Depression: “I’m too sad to do anything.”
- Acceptance: “I’m at peace with what is going to happen/has happened.”
Without question, we have experienced every stage of “grief” and the broad range of human emotion expressed within the context of IRENE’S Journey of FAITH. Admitting less than that would simply be insincere. Our experience is that the stages are not necessarily sequential, because one will tend to vacillate between them. I do find the last stage of grief quite absorbing: ACCEPTANCE. Acceptance of what, you ask? For the sake of this discussion I will identify three specifics:
Acceptance of:
- Irene’s diagnosis and current medical condition
- The radical change of circumstances in our daily lives
- The loss of our previous active and physical lifestyle
Irene drove herself to dialysis treatment this morning and afterward went to breakfast with Sue Martinez at the Silver Spur. She was lethargic and nauseated this cold and foggy afternoon. She took a very long, two hour + nap!!
We deeply appreciate the following poem addressing “acceptance” which was recently sent to us by our friend, AC Musgrave, who resides in Dallas, Texas, with his bride, Mary.
He said “I will forget the dying faces, the empty places,
They shall be filled again
Oh voices moaning deep within me cease,
But vain the word, vain, vain
For not in forgetting lieth peace”He said “I will crowd action upon action,
The strife of faction will stir me and sustain
Oh tears that drown the fires of manhood cease
But vain the word, vain, vain
For not in endeavor lieth peace”He said “I will withdraw me and be quiet,
Why meddle in life’s riot
Shut be my door to pain
Desire thou dost befool me, thou shall cease
But vain the word, vain, vain
For not in aloofness lieth peace.”He said “I will submit, I am defeated
Life hath depleted me of it’s rich gain
Oh futile murmurings why will you not cease?
But vain the word, vain, vain.
For not in submission lieth peace.”He said “I will accept the breaking sorrow
Which God tomorrow will to His son explain
Then did the turmoil deep within him cease
But not vain the word, not vain, vain
For in acceptance lieth peace.”-Amy Carmichael
And we are not without HOPE that Irene will be restored ….
“…. we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.”
2 Corinthians 4:7-10
Irene is the absolute expression of that verse.
As we vacillate between the various stages of grief, we are grateful to know and serve the God of all comforts, whose compassions fail not. Great is His Faithfulness.
Caminando con Fé
Dave
