You likely care about someone who is, or will be, grieving. I’d like you to give you some thoughts about how to help.
Please have a look at this note a school librarian found outside her front door or slipped underneath. Whose day wouldn’t a letter like that make?
Reginae’s letter got me to thinking about the skills people need in order to be with those who are grieving.
In the grief workshops I do for organizations, part of what I teach is how to be a presence who is not trying to mitigate, fix, or remove others’ grief, but rather a container that helps them bear it.
This is essentially practicing a way to be there usefully rather than harmfully.
Having thought about Reginae’s gesture, I’m going to add a new practice.
In a way, it’s how also to not be there, at least in terms of creating social obligation for someone who, grieving, has very little energy to give back.
Reginae—the girl who wrote this love letter to her school librarian—sealed it in an envelope, tucked it under the welcome mat or slipped it under the office door, then ran like the dickens!
Reginae’s got a basic skill going we all could learn from.