Usually I would write a blog post separate from my personal blog for Widows Voice. However this week has been a rough one, we all have them. Rather than write a totally new post I want to share a post I wrote earlier in the week that shows the dark side of grief. The side that most feel they need to hide.
I want to tell you, it’s ok to not be ok!
So today I am ok, but not that day.
That day emotions ran wild and it felt as though I was thrown back into December. To the month that shattered the world as I knew it. That day I was not ok, but that’s ok!
That day I hurled breakable possessions at walls, I screamed at the top of my lungs with no one around to hear. That day I tore the house apart, I stared at my broken reflection and watched tears fall from blood shot swollen eyes. That day I wanted to die.
That day I was angry that I have to be here, that day there was so much pain. Digging nails into my flesh and pulling at my hair, I screamed for him to take the pain away.
Does he hear me yell “when are you coming home?” and cry “how much longer will you be?”
That day I stared at a knife on the kitchen bench and thought “I ‘am so gutless!”. That day I felt defeated. That day I was exhausted. Every day is spent wishing he were here, but that day was much more than wishing. That day I felt beaten.
Every day, he is everywhere but nowhere.
In that moment, on that day, I tried to calm down so I took a shower. But the water didn’t scald my skin the way I wanted it to. I felt desperate, as though I physically wanted to burn. My heart raced so fast and I wished it would just stop beating. Before December, never could I of imagined what it felt like to actually feel so much heart ache that you long for the day it’s all over.
Today I know what it feels like to wake and wish I’d never opened my eyes.
That day I could not find my smile. That day I was simply existing in darkness and longing. That day I felt weak.
Afraid of myself and terrified to be alone, that day I wanted to be rescued. Most days I am merely fragmented pieces of the person I once was and that day my knight was nowhere to be found. No matter how loud I cried for him, how much my heart bled for him, I know he is never coming home.
That day I did not feel encouraging, that day I only felt empty. Parts of me forever missing because I miss out on him. That day I felt the need to confess to the world the chaotic mess in my mind, because I know I am not alone in this chaos.
There are days that we don’t believe the sun is going to shine. And it’s perfectly normal to feel this way, because we have each lost the brightest parts of our lives. People ask, how are you doing? But we don’t answer truthfully because we know only few really care. And even fewer understand.
Society doesn’t like to hear about the dark side of grief but it needs to be heard. The weight of carrying it alone at times gets far too heavy.
There are days that we crumble no matter how sturdy our walls may look. Days that we do not possess the strength and the fight to make it through alone. Days where we need someone to draw our sword for us and fight the battle with us. Days that the silence becomes to deafening but just the sound of another’s presence allows us to hear with clarity again.
Not every day, but some days…
So my plea is this. If the person reading this is a friend of someone grieving, one of the few who care, do not wait for them to reach out to you. Please try to notice their pain. Know they are not ok and it’s ok for them to not be ok. The grief of losing the love of your life is all consuming. It does not end. Not after three months, or six months or a year. Grief will always be there.
If you receive a message that may only read, what are you doing today? Please do not ignore it.
No one should ever have to grieve alone. Sending love and strength to all on this journey.
Today I am ok.