‘No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.’
With this opening line to A Grief Observed, his journal of grieving over the death of his wife, C.S. Lewis hints at the abyss of bewilderment and panic that comes with loss. One of the few certainties of human life is that we will all at some time, to varying degrees, encounter it. We give the name ‘grief’ to that seemingly insurmountable collection of feelings in an attempt to reclaim control; to provide an explanation for the unwelcome wildness that reigns in body, heart and mind during the early days of bereavement.
In Psalm 31, David describes the far-reaching effects of grief and cries openly to God: ‘Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and body with grief’ (v.9).
