What would you say grief reminded you of?

Grief is such a big experience for most people - what can we say it is like? Here are a few images some people have suggested. They help explain some important things about grief:

Grief is like your fingerprint. Your experience of it will be unique and personal to you. No one’s grief is exactly like yours. You can grieve in ways that suit you and who you are.

Grief is like being hit by big waves. They toss you around, turn your life upside down and dump you on the beach. Just as you try to catch a breath you’re swept up again. You fight to find which way is up. Gradually you realise there are a few more minutes between waves. One day you find yourself sitting on the beach drying out, with the waves some distance away. You’ve forgotten how good the sun feels. Then a random wave hits and you are right back in the rough sea again. Except it’s not quite the same and you find yourself landing higher up on the beach. As time goes by the waves toss you round less and less. Gradually you come to recognise that there’s always the chance of a random wave. But now you know you won’t drown.

Grief is like a river. You’re caught in its current, hit with waves of pain and emotion. Sometimes it becomes quiet and you drift, then you can find yourself crashing against rocks that hurt and whirlpools that confuse and overwhelm you. You feel you have no power to get to the bank but find yourself there sometimes. You can rest a while until you’re swept off once more, towards who knows what?

Grief is like a cloud. It rarely stays the same shape for long. It’s always on the move and changing shape – sometimes so slowly you hardly notice .Grief is like this. In the big picture our grief can seem like it’s not moving - like it’s always the same. But when we look more closely we can get a glimpse of how it is changing – slowly, in different places, bit by bit. Take a look up at a big cloud and watch a part of it closely. See how it edges this way or that. Sometimes it blocks the sun. Other times it lets sun through…

Grief is like an onion. As I grieve another layer of onion peels back and exposes new parts of myself and my pain. With each new layer there are tears. But also personal insights.

Grief is like a journey. It takes you down a road you haven’t travelled before – though you may have been on similar ones. You’re not sure of your destination and as you go along the road you face ups and downs, straights and corners, surprises and monotony. You become weary but you also - occasionally – get to see some amazing views. It’s great if you can find company, friends to help you carry your baggage sometimes or to chat with or share the scenery as you go. One day you realise just how far you’ve come.

See http://www.skylight.org.nz/media/15119/grief%20is.pdf for some more interesting images that people have suggested, which sum up for them what grief can be like.

Maybe you can post some of your own ideas?