Regardless of your political preferences, this is a refreshingly honest talk on grief (see video below) from Joe Biden to military families in mourning.
For anyone coping with a loss, I hope it will bring you some peace during this reflective time of year.
“There will come a day, I promise you, when the thought of your [lost loved one] brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye. It WILL happen. My prayer for you is, that day will come sooner than later. But … I’m telling you: It will come.” ~Joe Biden
8:02 – Poignant
“Some of you, the loss occurred two years, and some of you, two months ago. And just when you think, ‘Maybe I’m going to make it,’ you’re riding down a road, and you pass a field, and see a flower, and it reminds you. Or you hear a tune on the radio, or you just look up in the night. And you think, ‘Maybe I’m not going to make it.’ Because you feel at that moment the day you felt the day you got the news…”
10:10 – Helpful
“Keep a calendar, and every night when you go to bed, mark in that calendar whether the day was a 1, which is as bad as the day you heard the news, or a 10 (and you won’t have 10s for a long time).
“After two months, take out that calendar, put it on a graph, and you’ll find that your down days are just as bad as that first day. But here’s what happens: They get further and further apart. That’s when you know you’re going to make it. That’s when you realize the measure of your progress.”
11:53 – Hope and Hard Truths
His mom told him, “Out of everything terrible, something good will happen, if you look for it hard enough.” (To which he thought, “What a cruel thing to say.”)
“You know what you’re going to find out?” his mom asked. “Your relationship with your son or daughter, which was already close, is going to become a bond of steel that run through your chest and theirs and wraps you together. You’re going to find, with their brothers and sisters, they’re going to be each other’s best friends their entire life. You’re going to find there is a degree and difference and depth of relationship you never ever thought could happen.”
15:58 – My Personal Favorite
“Keep remembering that those kids of yours are him or her [your departed love one] for the rest of their lives.”
Think that last claim is a stretch? This Scientific American article may convince you otherwise…
My Castle Heart Publications 