HUG Corner: Thought for the Week 4/23/18

Healing After Loss (Martha Whitmore Hickman)

“With the help of these and other commonplace objects – with the help of the two big elm trees that shaded the house from the heat of the sun, and the trumpet vine by the back door, and the white lilac bush by the dining room window, and the comfortable wicker porch furniture and the porch swing that contributed its creak…creak…to the sounds of the summer night – I got from one day to the next.”

– William Maxwell

“When our world is shattered by grief, sometimes the only things that get us through are the familiar objects and routines that say in their very being, Look – you have not lost everything; some things are the same. They make no demands on us, these familiar objects, they are just there. They represent stability in a world that has suddenly fallen to chaos. We are grateful to them in an irrational, embracing way, as though they were dear friends – which, in this crisis, they are.

In this time of upset and change, I am grateful for the solace of the familiar.”