Journey to Motherhood

The greatest cargoes of life come in over quiet seas. p.129

About the heaviness of grief, it is the natural, healthy reaction to loss. Mercifully, it isn’t constant but comes in waves, probably because the finality of death is so shocking it can’t be taken in all at once, but has to be absorbed little by little. p. 131

There is a natural lessening of grief over time, and eventually we give up the deep sorrow and move on. We are not built to carry the heartache indefinitely. p.131

The above quotes are from the book,
Journey to Motherhood by Alison Freeland. The chapter that they are from is named, “Things That Help”.

I’m wondering how current any type of pregnancy loss book can be. Reading this book, it was obvious the time frame of her writing. If anyone wears the label of ‘yuppie’, it is this author and her husband. Since myself and my husband are exact opposite of yuppie. In fact, I just had to look up how to spell it in the dictionary! Checking the copyright of the book, yes, I can see that it was published in 1990. The year after I graduated high school. Could I learn anything from her experiences?

Of course I could. First of all, I had never heard of the old saying that I listed first off in this post. “The greatest cargoes of life come in over quiet seas”. She took this to mean that as calm as she could make her mind, the better it would be to contribute to a successful pregnancy,and help her mental state as well. I have thought of this quote a lot since I first read it, reminding myself to calm my mind and see the gifts that come because of it.

I don’t feel the same way that the author does about her pregnancy losses, our views vary quite a bit on this issue. But, I’ve considered what she had to say in my current grieving context. I am actually hoping that what she is saying is true. Although there is a part of me that knows that my grieving will last as long as I do, I am looking forward to the lessening of it. I’m also trying to keep in mind that the waves take you under but also raise you up. And there is a part of me that is hoping that it is true that I won’t be heartbroken forever, but honestly, at this point, I wouldn’t want to be anything else.

Related posts:

1. Our Son, the Journey
2. Marley and Me
3. Forever In Our Hearts Journal
4. Comfort Me with Apples
5. The Lady and the Panda

This entry was posted on Monday, June 12th, 2006 at 9:53 pm and is filed under Book Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.