Quotes are something that I have always found comforting and inspiring. I can always find one that fits my mood! As I find them, I will share them here. Enjoy
~ QUOTES AND SAYINGS ~
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, nor touched, but are felt in the heart. *Helen Keller*
Bereavement is the deepest initiation into the mysteries of human life, an initiation more searching and profound than even happy love. - Dean Inge
Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. ~From the television show The Wonder Years
We do not remember days, we remember moments.
Grief is a tidal wave that over takes you,smashes down upon you with unimaginable force,sweeps you up into its darkness,where you tumble and crash against unidentifiable surfaces,only to be thrown out on an unknown beach, bruised, reshaped...Grief will make a new person out of you,if it doesn't kill you in the making.- Stephanie Ericsson
Sometimes love is for a moment.
Sometimes love is for a lifetime.
Sometimes a moment is a lifetime.
"People are never more insecure than when they become obsessed with their fears at the expense of their dreams." - Norman Cousins
"When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight."
~Kahlil Gibran
"What we have once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes a part of us." Helen Keller
"If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream" The Trumpet of Conscience - Martin Luther King, Jr.
i put your name in the sand.
but the waves washed it away.
i put your name on my hand.
but i washed it away the next day.
i put your name on paper.
but i accidentally threw it away.
i put your name in my heart and forever it will stay
- Shelby Ann Arthur
Personally, I think we all don’t even start to climb out of the murky depths until we’ve fully explored them. -Rosalinda Raynes Milly’s Mum
"Some men see things as they are and say, "Why?" I dream of things that never were and say, "Why not?"
paraphrase of Shaw, often attributed to Robert F. (Bobby) Kennedy, who used it in a speech which his brother, Edward F. (Teddy) Kennedy quoted at RFK's funeral.
- George Bernard Shaw
“We have suffered, but we have survived;
We are hurting, but we are enduring.” -Ben Van Vechten
If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people. - Thich Nhat Hanh
"An angel in the book of life wrote down my baby's birth.
Then whispered as she closed the book "too beautiful for earth".
~author unknown
Sorrows come to stretch our places in the heart for joy. - Markham
"A family is a circle of love, not broken by a loss, but made stronger by the memories. We remember."
“The cocoon represents their lives and their being wrapped up by their pain and hopelessness. The butterfly represents their freedom from the pain. -Lloyd Carson, Stephen’s dad
"They gave so much to be so little, but Angels always do…"
They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies.
— William Penn
"We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter's evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true." - Woodrow Wilson
As Long As I Live You Will Live
As Long As I Live You Will Be Remembered
As Long As I Live You Will Be Loved...Author unknown
Tears have a wisdom all their own. They come when a person has relaxed enough to let go and to work through his sorrow. They are the natural bleeding of an emotional wound, carrying the poison out of the system. Here lies the road to recovery. - F. Alexander Magoun
None of us would part with a single one of our memories yet they are all so laced with pain. They need and desire to touch and hold our child again brings and ache that has no release. -Willis Day, Nathan & Rachel’s dad
Grief is a process of awareness, of making real inside the self an event that already occurred in reality outside - Parkes and Weiss
"Dear Lord, I would have loved to have held my babies on my lap and tell them about you, but since I didn't get the chance, would you please hold them on your lap and tell them about me?"
When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares. - Henri Nouwen
"If tears could build a stairway, and memories a lane, I'd walk right up to heaven and bring you home again."
To look to the future when the past still haunts us is a daunting task, but what other choice do we have? We can’t change the past, we are stuck with it, all we can do is try to live the best we can and to make the best of it. -Jack Cassidy, Patti’s dad
"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world." - Harriet Tubman
Missed with a grief beyond all tears."
How very softly
you tiptoed into my world.
Almost silently;
Only a moment you stayed.
But what an imprint
Your footprints have left
On our hearts.
--Author Unknown
Losing a child is like a broken down car. To go in reverse brings painful memories. To go forward is too scary without your child. So we sit in neutral with our hands clutched to the emergency brake, hoping someday to find a way to run again.-Denise Bellion, Carl’s mom
"To Remember Is Painful
To Forget Is Impossible."
~Maureen Connelly
That’s the only thing that could help me at times’ someone to help me cry. Just shut up and sit and be quiet while I cry. This thing called grief is a strange thing indeed. -Maggie Zarcufsky, Shaun’s mom
Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. ~From the television show The Wonder Years
"Now I lay you down to sleep,
I pray the Lord your soul to keep;
Within his arms he'll hold you tight,
My Heavenly Angel, My Guiding Light."
Small things matter so much to me now - the sunsets, perfume of flowers, smiles on faces, laughter, etc. They are all things I took for granted before but now I see them differently. -Janine Chappell, Cory’s mom
"Nothing happens unless first we dream." - Carl Sandburg
"A Life may last for just a moment....
but memory can make that moment last forever..."
"There is no foot so small that it cannot leave an imprint on this world"
I ache… I can’t breathe… I’m drowning in tears. Their names aren’t supposed to be in granite. They are supposed to be on diploma’s from medical school, hanging on the wall in their offices. They aren’t supposed to be gone. -Brenda Adkins, Jason’s and Rick’s mom
"The mention of my child's name may bring tears to my eyes, but it never fails to bring music to my ears. If you are really my friend, let me hear the beautiful music of his name. It soothes my broken heart and sings to my soul."
"Some say you are too painful to remember, I say you are too PRECIOUS to forget!"
"Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning."- Gloria Steinem
When I am too tired to tread on water or swim, I just look to the sky and float. It requires very little energy and if you can relax and feel God’s love shining on your face, you may find life a bit easier for the moment. -Barbara, mother of Spence
"
In life, many thoughts are born in the course of a moment, an hour, a day. Some are dreams, some visions. Often, we are unable to distinguish between them. To some, they are the same; however, not all dreams are visions. Much energy is lost in fanciful dreams that never bear fruit. But visions are messages from the Great Spirit, each for a different purpose in life. Consequently, one person's vision may not be that of another. To have a vision, one must be prepared to receive it, and when it comes, to accept it. Thus when these inner urges become reality, only then can visions be fulfilled. The spiritual side of life knows everyone's heart and who to trust. How could a vision ever be given to someone to harbor if that person could not be trusted to carry it out. The message is simple: commitment precedes vision."
- High Eagle
I have always believed we can share our joy, but not our sorrow; sorrow is a solidary thing. Most of the days of our lives are just in different shades of gray. The sorrow went deep inside me. Joy is inside-out. Grief is outside-in. The sorrow stabbed into my soul. - Mare Sanford, Moe’s momLittle footprints
How very softly you tiptoed into our world, almost silently, only a moment you stayed. But what an imprint you footsteps have left upon our hearts. -- Dorothy Ferguson
A moment in our arms...a lifetime in our hearts.
Sorrow you can hold, however desolating, if nobody speaks to you. If they speak, you break down. ~Bede Jarrett
It's so curious: one can resist tears and 'behave' very well in the hardest hours of grief. But then someone makes you a friendly sign behind a window, or one notices that a flower that was in bud only yesterday has suddenly blossomed, or a letter slips from a drawer... and everything collapses. ~Colette
Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal. ~From a headstone in Ireland
"As for me, I would rather be able to love things I cannot have, than to have things I'm not able to love." Merrit Malloy
"Our hearts still ache with sadness, And Secret tears still flow, Was it meant to lose you, No one can ever know." author unknown
"Have you come to the Red Sea place in your life, Where in spite of all you can do, There is no way out, there is no way back, There is no other way but through?" Annie Johnson Flint
"If it weren't for the unique and innate relationship between parent and child that says 'I love you no matter what,' some babies would never come home from the hospital." - Unknown
"If I were to choose between pain and nothing I would choose pain" - William Faulkner
"The brain gives up a lot less easily than the body" Norman Maclean
"Courage is doing what you are afraid to do" - Edie Rickenbacker
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away. "
Grieving is a necessary passage and a difficult transition to finally letting go of sorrow - it is not a permanent rest stop. ~Dodinsky, www.dodinsky.com
"Mommy, where do helium balloons go?
Up, up and away.
Do they go up to heaven?
Yes, I think so.
Then, this can go to baby Holly"
-Erik Stanbro
"To bring anything into your life, imagine that it is already there." - Unknown
"When you cannot find peace in yourself it is useless to look for it elsewhere." La Rochefoucaudid
"Gone yet not forgetten,
although we are apart,
your spirit lives within me,
forever in my heart."
Sorrow makes us all children again - destroys all differences of intellect. The wisest know nothing. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Each new life... No matter how fragile or brief... Forever changes the world."
"When your infant dies your future is put on hold until you can come to terms with your past" -Unknown
"The one who put gentle footprints on our hearts leaves a story worth telling"
"What the heart has once owned and had, It shall never lose……"
"I'm not looking for answers anymore, but for something to remember." - Merrit Malloy
"When you suppress or repress those things which you don't want to live with, you don't really solve the problem because you don't bury the problem dead….you bury it alive. It remains alive and active inside of you. - John Powell
We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving. And we all have some power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing. - Louisa May Alcott
"I don't ask for your pity, but just for your understanding,
not even that, no, just for the recognition of me in you, and the enemy time in us all.
- Tennessee Williams
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted" Matthew 5:4
"So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost" Matthew 18:14
"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Luke 12:13
"A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes. "- Mohandas K. Gandhi
"I have had dreams and I have had nightmares, but I have conquered my nightmares because of my dreams." - Jonas Salk
"...you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you" Isaiah 43:4
"The invariable mark of a dream is to see it come true." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I am going to send an angel in front of you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. "
Exodus 23:20
"Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs." Matthew 19:14
"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more." Revelation 21:4
"A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall asee• me, because I go to the Father." John 16:16
~ POEMS ~
Go ahead and mention my child,
The one who died, you know.
Don't worry about hurting me further.
The depth of my pain doesn't show.
Don't worry about making me cry.
I'm already crying inside.
Help me to heal by releasing,
The tears that I try to hide.
I'm hurt when you keep silent,
Pretending she didn't exist.
I'd rather you mention my child,
Knowing that she has been missed.
You ask me how I was doing.
I say "pretty good" or "fine."
But healing is something ongoing.
I feel it will take a lifetime.
The one who died, you know.
Don't worry about hurting me further.
The depth of my pain doesn't show.
Don't worry about making me cry.
I'm already crying inside.
Help me to heal by releasing,
The tears that I try to hide.
I'm hurt when you keep silent,
Pretending she didn't exist.
I'd rather you mention my child,
Knowing that she has been missed.
You ask me how I was doing.
I say "pretty good" or "fine."
But healing is something ongoing.
I feel it will take a lifetime.
Remembering Elizabeth Dent
TERRIBLE TWO
I thought it was over,
The crushing pain.
The memories were sweeter.
Only a little twinge now and then….
Only a few tears
When I thought too much
Of what I was missing…
My little girl,
I didn't expect these birthday blues,
These tears, this hurt, the regrets.
It's terrible.
She would have been two.
- Barbara Stanbro
Will we forget…no never
But we don't need to.
We've loved
We've cared
We've cried
We've grown
And now it's time to smile again.
Breathe deeply and know that you are loved.
You are not alone,
though at times, you will feel like a
desolate island of grief
untouchable
distant.
Close your eyes.
Seek the wisdom of women who have walked this well-worn path before you,
before,
and before,
and before you yourself were born.
These beautiful ones
with eyes like yours
have shared your pain, and
weathered the storms of loss.
YES
Is scary….
It's so final
So full
So complete
NO
Is easy…..
It closes doors
And windows
It hides facts and problems
No
Is an end.
But,
YES…..
Is a beginning
A pledge
A promise
A commitment…..
- Leonard Nimoy
What we call the beginning
is often the end,
And to make our ends
is to make a beginning
The end where we start from.
T.S. Elliot
LOCAL ANESTHETIC
Sometimes
I think
that I'm not really present
At my life.
As though it goes on
Without my permission
Sometimes,
Although I don't want to die,
I want to stop
Living.
I want to climb
Into the other side
Of my face
And observe my experiences
Without having them.
Sometimes,
And only once in a while,
I want to stop living.
But I really don't want
To die
- Merrit Malloy
SOME TRAVELING MUSIC
How can you say something new about being alone?
Tell someone you're a loner and right away they think you're lonely?
It's not the same thing, you know.
It's not wanting to put all your marbles in one pocket.
It's caring enough not to care too much.
Mostly it's letting yourself come first for a while.
- Rod McKuen
THIS DAY
something began for me that day
something ended for me that day
that day everyone was silent
soft sunlight shone on maple leaves
angels were yawning that day
a day like today
a day like yesterday
nothing began for anyone else that day
nothing ended for anyone else that day
alone I crossed a railroad crossing
and crossed back over again
I then crouched in the middle of the tracks
and looked down the tracks at the setting sun
that was a day like today
a day like tomorrow
I kept quiet, unable to weep this day
somebody moves around in the womb
something begins for me this day
pods of peas are snapped
a kitten falls in the river this day
a day of death amid life
- Shuntaro Tanikawa
