Shared by,  Love After Loss: Writing The Rest of Your Story (via Facebook)

You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself. (Alan Alda) Any type of change requires leaving the “city of your comfort.” This is difficult because even if it means there will be improvements, most are resistant to change. Additionally, we are not taught to listen to ourselves or our intuition, but rather to outside forces, for example, “Everyone is doing it, so I should too.” or “They said…” Who is this mysterious “they” and do they know what is best for you? I think not! Before you worry about finding a romantic partner, come to know and trust yourself … actually fall in love with yourself! This can be your greatest love affair (in a non-egotistical manner), for YOU are the person with whom you will spend the most amount of time. If you are not happy with yourself, you don’t have a very good change of being happy in any situation or with any person.

Grief Related Poem, by Marilyn Gryte:

Grief feels like a cave,

an aimless groping

Into a black deepening void.

Into  your hand

I press the only candle I have.

A message to flicker

in the darkness of your soul.

Grief feels like a cave,

but it is not a cave.

Grief is a tunnel, a journey.

The blackness is the same –

the only difference is hope.”

– Marilyn Gryte

“Life breaks us all sometimes, … but some grow strong in the broken places.” Paraphrased from Ernest Hemingway’s  “A Farewell to Arms”

“Grief is an emotionally and spiritually painful journey; but if embraced, it’s the most insightful journey towards compassion and understanding.” ~ Sue Rosenbloom