Resilience

A human's resilience is an amazing, even awe inspiring quality to me.  While volunteering at funeral dinners, I observe the way people handle the passing of a loved one.  It is a mix of quiet acceptance, bewilderment, numbness, sorrow, loss, grief, support and the love.  People reaching out to each other for comfort, compassion, reassurance and hope.  You also see bravery and the celebration of people that were deeply loved.

Several of the ladies I work with have lost their husbands very recently.  Their steadfastness and commitment to continue helping others who loose their loved ones, moves me deeply.  It is an exhausting job and I see a lot of them in physical pain by the end of the dinner, but none of them ever complain.  They just keep going.  

One lady in particular just lost her husband two weeks ago.  Yet she was there today, ready to help even though I could still see and feel how raw she was inside.  Her quiet dedication and presence showed me her resilience and bravery.  She is not shying away from life nor death.  She is facing her reality and accepting it one baby step at a time.

I simply felt moved to write about this today.  This blog is meant to be a tribute to human resilience, to the strength that is within all of us, to the acceptance of life and death as equals, to the dedication and commitment of these ladies, and to the love that is in all of them and all of us.  May God bless us all.