Grief

“Grief is the last act of love we have to give to those we loved. Where there is deep grief, there was great love.”

My community has recently been rocked in a HUGE way. An alum at American University was violently murdered on the 4th of July. As news hit social media on Sunday, I was puzzled why his face and his name was flooding my news feed and timeline. I hadn't expected what I was about to read. 

    I'm not new to death, the sad part is no one really is. We will all experience it in some fashion. But the way that Kevin Sutherland died, was not what I was expecting. We hear these stories of senseless murders of people being tortured, being attacked, but you pray that it won't get close to where you are. You pray that when it comes to that moment, that there is some good in the world that causes people to change. A few months ago another friend of a friend was murdered in his home. And that rocked me to my core. In reading what happened to Kevin I didn't think I could be more sickened. Kevin like Jon Jon, the friend who was murdered in his home were loving caring people. They changed the space around them for the better and they made people better for being around them. 

 I read this article this woman posted. It's so beautifully written and it says all the things you want someone to say. It says all of the things you want to hear and it sets the beginning of healing that is needed when you are grieving. 

I don't know how we move forward. I don't know how I can support my friends who are feeling Kevin's loss more intimately than I can. But here's the thing about grief as much as it hurts for us individually, there is community in grief. There is healing in grief, there is healing in how we celebrate the life that we loss. There is healing in how we live out our lives in honor of the ones we lost. There is healing in recognizing that there is still good in this world, in spite of all the pain that is out there. 

To take from the author: 

Love.