THE WAY TO LIGHT AFTER LOSS

 From Linda Lee Greene, Author/Artist

In the Autumn Issue of THE COTTAGE JOURNAL, the interior decorating magazine’s Cindy Smith Cooper, who writes the content overview, recalls the words of Interior Design icon Dorothy Draper: “There seems to be within all of us the innate yearning to be lifted momentarily out of our own lives into the realm of charm and make-believe.” Of course, Draper was alluding to enchanting home interiors, but the sentiment is just as relevant to golfing, knitting, reading, and many other endeavors that come to mind. And goodness knows, our need to steal away to new places or to past/future times, or simply to get out of our own head, or away from the TV news through whatever means at hand, is more critical now than at any time in living memory.

 

The rub for so many of us, though, is that at times of deeply personal trauma, no diversion can take us away to alternate worlds. The grief wrought by loss stupefies us, paralyzes us, numbs us. The dirty dishes pile up in the sink; the golf clubs are only good for hanging our soiled shirts on; and the words on the pages of books swirl together in unintelligible jumbles before our eyes. Our only recourse at such times is to wait it out, to call upon every ounce of patient faith we can muster that something good, maybe even something better, will come of it, eventually.

 

At the back of the magazine mentioned above is an inspirational story: A young American couple is in deep mourning over the loss of their pregnancy. Three months into the grieving process, the wife wakes one morning with a burning desire to build a greenhouse on their Virginia property. Nothing could be stranger because she has never shown any interest in plants, but the couple now possesses plants received as gifts of condolence from friends and family upon their loss. The wife is determined to keep the plants alive at all costs, because they have become living, breathing touchstones of their lost baby. The husband’s engineering background comes in handy in designing the greenhouse, and the two of them get busy and build it with their own hands. Seven months later, the last nail is driven and the greenhouse is christened in those same moments by a rainbow left by a sudden thunderstorm. That very day, they find out they are pregnant again. Word spreads about the unique and miraculous greenhouse and requests pour in from people wanting to book it for marriage proposals and wedding ceremonies, which occur almost every weekend now.

 

This experience of waking from sleep with a clear vision of a new path to follow after having languished for a time in the void of loss is familiar to me, as I’m sure it is to you. In the case of the young wife cited above, three months was the magical number, three months for the universe to make visible the transforming of tragedy into joyfulness. I am banking on the universe to show each and every one of us the way out of the claustrophobic darkness of loss and into the expansive light of healing after the turmoil we’ve been through this year and last. Could blessings individual and equivalent to the American couple’s greenhouse be on their way to you and to me, blessings that will show themselves right in time for Christmas? Stay tuned, because no matter how it goes, I will be back then with further comments on this topic.

 

I invite you to use the reply space below to tell me about a blessing that has unfolded for you following a loss. It goes without saying that your story will serve as a source of inspiration for your fellow readers and for me.©

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STAY TUNED, as well for multi-award-winning author, Linda Lee Greene’s new novel, GARDEN OF THE SPIRITS OF THE POTS. It is coming out very soon: In the story, Nicholas Plato relocates to Sydney, Australia to escape devastating losses back home in America. A series of inexplicable encounters in Australia’s outback with an indigenous potter reveals to Nicholas a new life filled with unexpected blessings.

 

Current paperbacks and eBooks written by Greene are available for purchase worldwide at www.Amazon.com.  

 

To learn more about the greenhouse cited in this essay, visit www.vaughan-house.com.    

 

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