March seventh will forever be etched in my heart. It is the date that my beloved husband Winston Newton Sr. transitioned to the next life. There were no goodbyes or forewarning that he was going. There were no frantic calls for help. He went as peaceably as he lived, quietly and without fanfare. The sudden knowledge that we would not see him anymore was traumatic to my family, friends, neighbors and me.
My world was turned upside down. Through the last nineteen years I learned many lessons about walking through grief. I would like to share a dozen lessons gleaned from my walk through the valley of sorrow.
Lessons Learned
1. Don't try to have the life you used to have. Move forward creating new
life as you go.
2. Weep but keep walking. Grief will come. It takes time to heal.
3. Don't go to that hopeless place. if you find yourself there get out, God's mercy
is new each day.
4. Accept your friends’ help
5. Eat
6. Sleep
7. Don’t try to fill the void with shopping and other things.
8. Don’t go into debt. Connected to number 7
9. Learn to be alone.
10. Get comfortable with the discomfort.
11. Learn to accept that my life is never going to be the same and that’s okay.
12. If necessary get counseling, or join a grief group
Remember we are to walk through the Valley of Grief. Psalm 23 verse 4 states "..Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.." We are not to camp, or build a house in the valley. We are to go through the valley. Keep walking and keep believing that
God will be with you as you go through your time of sorrow.
