My
dear Friends,
I
am sitting in the sun on a beautiful winter day, absorbing the warmth I need to
see me through the next cold spell. Here
on the Highveld we do enjoy lovely sunny days, even though the temperature
drops to freezing or below at night. The
bricks, too, absorb the sunshine and hold that warmth through a cold day or
two. It is only when the cold spell goes
on that that cold penetrates our homes and our very bones.
I
know I am always drawing analogies from Nature – but is it not true? That
dreadful misery of early grief chills us to the marrow of our bones, and it
takes a long time to thaw out. And yet,
if we allow ourselves to look for the sunshine and the warmth, we will thaw out.
One of the warming experiences is that
of the friendship, understanding and sharing of our Compassionate Friends. Through them, too, we begin to feel free to
dip into our memories and to be warmed again.
For our memories are not only of the end, but of all the days of the
lives of our beloved children. So the
ice-block which our hearts had become, can melt, working through our systems
and out in our tears.
‘Time cannot steal the
treasures that we carry in our hearts,
Nor ever dim the shining
thoughts our cherished past imparts.
For memories of the one
we’ve loved will cast a gentle glow
To grace our days and
light our paths wherever we may go’
- This
from an unknown author, found in a Parkhome, South Australia – TCF Newsletter,
Dec ‘96/Jan ‘97
In
the midst of sadness and misery, we can find small comforts, small joys, if we
so wish. We need to do this to carry us
through the bad times. There is a song
which says, ‘Open up your hearts and let the sun shine in’. Hope will blossom again, just as Spring
bursts forth from the seemingly dead trees, and you will live again.
This
is my wish for all of you who are seemingly mired in the depths of winter.
With
love,
Betty
Wainer – TCF – Johannesburg
Gratefully
lifted from the July 1998 Jhb Newsletter
