Inspirational Quotes

If everything else were still the same, he'd have felt Zee's absence like a gaping hole. But if he could continue to reconfigure his entire life, there would be no missing place where Zee had been.

~ Rebecca Makkai

It was a tragic end to a heroic life.

~ Chris Kyle

I often wondered after David’s death: Had they known something then? Did their very souls recognize each other? Did Jacob, closer to God than anyone else I knew, somehow sense this was the last time he would see his grandpa? Hadthere been a message to the little boy in David’s long-held gaze? Did these two people—the six-year-old boy and the sixty-year-old man— realize something the rest of us didn’t?

~ Mary Potter Kenyon

Allow yourself some happiness, so that I can be a part of it.

~ Montgomery Mahaffey

Some aching beauty comes with huge loss, although maybe not right away, when it would be helpful. Life is a very powerful force, despite the constant discouragement. So if you are a person with connections to life, a few tendrils eventually break through the sidewalk of loss, and you notice them, maybe space out studying them for a few moments, or maybe they tickle you into movement and response, if only because you have to scratch your nose.

~ Anne Lamott

We human beings don't realize how great God is. He has given us an extraordinary brain and a sensitive loving heart. He has blessed us with two lips to talk and express our feelings, two eyes which see a world of colours and beauty, two feet which walk on the road of life, two hands to work for us, and two ears to hear the words of love. As I found with my ear, no one knows how much power they have in their each and every organ until they lose one.

~ Malala Yousafzai

I work so hard for profits because my dreams are expensive.

~ Amit Kalantri

What is dying?I am standing on the seashore.A ship sails to the morning breeze and starts for the ocean.She is an object and I stand watching herTill at last she fades from the horizon,And someone at my side says, “She is gone!” Gone where?Gone from my sight, that is all;She is just as large in the masts, hull and spars as she was when I saw her,And just as able to bear her load of living freight to its destination.The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me, not in her;And just at the moment when someone at my side says, “She is gone”,There are others who are watching her coming,And other voices take up a glad shout,“There she comes” – and that is dying.

~ Charles Henry Brent

When life hands you the unthinkable you must find new ways to see.

~ Nancy Sharp

A feeling of pleasure or solace can be so hard to find when you are in the depths of your grief. Sometimes it's the little things that help get you through the day. You may think your comforts sound ridiculous to others, but there is nothing ridiculous about finding one little thing to help you feel good in the midst of pain and sorrow!

~ Elizabeth Berrien

There is nothing like feeling truly awake and aware of my life and what it means to me. So I look ahead and think, There is still so much to be done, and I will continue to make the most of it.

~ Elizabeth Berrien

I would still rather feel things and live life to the fullest rather than hide in a cave and attempt to protect myself from the uncertainties of the world.

~ Elizabeth Berrien

We never truly get over a loss, but we can move forward and evolve from it.

~ Elizabeth Berrien

I believe I gather strength from the generations of women who came before me - that together we all hold the suffering of the world.

~ Elizabeth Berrien

It is true that the grief journey is very lonely, but it is also up to you to decide just how lonely you will make it.

~ Elizabeth Berrien

It's my own deep-rooted feeling that our souls never truly die and that life continues in some way. I know I need to have patience as my beliefs continue to evolve with my personal growth. As I've looked around at the things I do have in my life, I've gradually started to trust in life again, little by little. I think, How could all of these other amazing things come into my life if there was not something larger than me?

~ Elizabeth Berrien

I used to feel afraid of the future, always assuming the worst. But now I've realized that my worst fears have already happened, and I've survived them! I've walked into the fire and made it out alive. Only the loss of a close loved one could have woken me up to reality in the same way.

~ Elizabeth Berrien

The truth is, we never know what life will bring us and we don't have as much control as we might think we have. But we CAN choose how we walk through life and how we spend our time.

~ Elizabeth Berrien

It is okay to release your feelings when you feel the waves coming. It's all part of the process of having to let go of your relationship with your loved one as you once knew it. And remember, letting go is not the same thing as forgetting!

~ Elizabeth Berrien

The intense roller coaster of emotions will gradually lesson over time. But there is no timeframe for the grieving process, and it will not be rushed, no matter how fast you'd like to get over it. The reality is that there is no getting over it; you can only walk through it.

~ Elizabeth Berrien

You have to do what feels right for you. Do not let anyone influence you otherwise. It is your mind, your heart, and your own internal wisdom that will lead you in the direction you need to go.

~ Elizabeth Berrien

I began to recognize that there was a part of me that was stronger than I ever could have imagined. I didn't know how I was still standing. I surprised myself. I was waking up to the fact that I was in charge of my own life and it was my choice whether to sink or float.

~ Elizabeth Berrien

Once you have walked down the grief path, what you have gained on your journey may turn into invaluable advice for someone else.

~ Elizabeth Berrien

I began to feel that nature itself was nurturing me, reminding me that life still offered beauty and calm, and that I was also made out of these elements.

~ Elizabeth Berrien

Each loss brings growth with it, and learning to handle new experiences and taking charge of your needs is part of the transformative process.

~ Elizabeth Berrien

Everything assumes a different intensity when you are feeling the pain of loss. Be prepared. A minor annoyance that you might once have managed with a shrug now becomes a nuclear crisis! You are no doubt going to do things perfectly imperfectly. That is part of our path as humans. Forget about striving for perfection while dealing with grief! If you beat yourself up every time you forget something, have a breakdown, or don't do something correctly then you're going to end up very black and blue. I guarantee you won't want to look in the mirror! So be kinder and more patient with yourself.

~ Elizabeth Berrien

Remember to view yourself and your humanness with a kind heart.

~ Elizabeth Berrien

Learning to live again wholeheartedly includes letting love flow freely in and out of your heart.

~ Elizabeth Berrien

Journeying through grief is one of the most normal human experiences you can have. Nevertheless, all too frequently the heartbroken seem to feel alienated by society. Unfortunately in our culture, we are taught to hold our feelings in. If someone asks us, How are you doing today? the expected answer is, I'm okay. But what if you aren't okay? You obviously don't want to go into a monologue of why you're not okay, but sometimes you feel as if you're going to explode if you can't tell off that well-meaning person for even daring to ask you such a thing in the first place!

~ Elizabeth Berrien

Some of the choices you make might not always turn out to be the best ones, but at least you are learning as you go.

~ Elizabeth Berrien

It is important to recognize when you have been detached from life for too long. The fact is you are still alive, and I can only imagine that your loved one would want you to go on living. I highly doubt they would have said to you, When or if I die before you, I want you to spend the rest of your life sitting on a couch staring at the wall. Please fulfill this important task for me.

~ Elizabeth Berrien

There's no way around grief and loss: you can dodge all you want, but sooner or later you just have to go into it, through it, and, hopefully, come out the other side. The world you find there will never be the same as the world you left.

~ Johnny Cash

A relationship between two people is made up, for the most part, of invisible things: memories, shared experiences, hopes and fears. When one person disappears, the other is left alone, as if holding a string with no kite. Memories can do a lot to sustain you, but the invisible stuff of the relationship is lost, even as unresolved issues remain: arguments never settled, kind words never uttered, things left un-said. They become like a splinter beneath the skin-unseen, but painful nevertheless. Until they're exposed, coping with the loss is impossible.

~ David Dosa

How we respond to grief can shape our present

~ K.c. Rhoads

If he didn’t love so deeply, he couldn’t grieve so deeply. But he’s drowning in it.

~ Dee Henderson

There are degrees of obsession, of awareness, of grief, of insanity.

~ Nina Lacour

Synthesis is the gateway to Transcendence, because once you accept that you are forever changed and that life is forever different, you have to ask, What are you going to do about that fact? Will the change be for the better or for worse? It's the loss itself that becomes the catalyst for meaning. (pg 273)

~ Ashley Davis Bush

Kenny rested his hand on my leg, patting it delicately. His thoughts staying just that, thoughts, as we drove in silence, back to my prison of paradise, back to the one place I knew I could be happy, yet miserable, all in the same day.

~ Holly Hood

She wasn’t broken.She was made up of a thousand tiny little cracks.She was always trying to keep herself glued together.But it was hard, she felt too much.No matter what she did, her emotions seeped through,sometimes in drips, other times in floods,She felt everything,the heaviness of the clouds right before rain,the rush of the subway cars as they left the station,the feeling of goodbye as she watched someone walk away,wondering if it was the last time she would see them,the feeling of a kiss lingering on her cheek for hours.She felt the loneliness of the sun as it hung in the sky,shedding light on the day,without companion.And she longed to give as much as the sun.If she could brighten someone’s day,bestow warmth were there was cold,make someone smile, give someone hope,then for a minute, an hour, maybe even a day,the cracks would fill with loveand the pain would become only a voice,reminding her that her pain was important.She knew how fragile life was, how hard,and how precious.She wanted to feel it all.

~ Jacqueline Simon Gunn

I grief for the foolishness of my ignorance.

~ Lailah Gifty Akita