Healing Grief Through Creative Gifts

When my grandmother passed away at 98 it was a very difficult time in my life. As part of the process of working through my own grief I wrote the following poem.

Grandma Went Home On Mother’s Day

She was the mother of a son and a daughter.
She was the loving grandmother to five.
She was a great-grandmother, and a great-great grandmother too.
Grandma went home on Mother’s Day

She never thought of herself as an artist.
Yet her family was her greatest masterpiece.
She loved each of them totally, and completely.
Grandma went home on Mother’s Day.

She left us with a great example.
She taught us what devotion to family means.
She taught us that God, and family come first.
Grandma went home on Mother’s Day.

She filled our lives with happy memories.
The best parts of her became parts of us.
Much of what made her grandma, will be with us always.
Grandma went home on Mother’s Day.

Mother’s day came, and Grandma left.
She went home to be with the Lord she loved.
To Heaven, to prepare our best family reunion ever.
Grandma went home on Mother’s Day.

In the five plus years since I have been blessed profoundly by the number of people who have been helped through their own grief through this poem I wrote for myself, and my grandmother. I’m doing the same thing now, although in a different way. This is the second article on grief I have written since my mother passed away recently. God has always given me a talent for writing. I have always found using this talent very comforting, and therapeutic. My experience has been that this is especially true about when I am on a journey through grief.

As a minister, and grief counselor this has all taught me something that I feel is very important. God gives us all many gifts. These gifts can often be in the form of creative talents. Although it will rarely if ever be the complete answer, if God has given you the gift of creative talent you may find it of great comfort in times of grief. I’m not saying everybody should write a poem. Writing is my talent. What I am saying is take an inventory of your own talents. If you sing consider composing a song. If your talent is woodworking, maybe you could carve a beautiful frame for a favorite picture featuring your lost loved one. If you paint a picture. Make whatever your gift may be your own personal tribute. You might be surprised at the healing value in expressing your feelings this way. It might even help you to work through what you are feeling.

What you create is for you, for whatever use you want to make of it. So don’t worry if you don’t think anybody else will want to read it, or hear it, or see it. The point is to ease your way down one of life’s difficult journeys. If on the other hand you feel moved to share what you have created by all means do so. I wouldn’t be surprised if you find out as I did that a tool you used to help heal your grief also helped many others. Its also true that one of the best ways to set your foot on the road to recovery from a crisis in your life is to be of service to someone else.