Welcome . Welcome to Solace: , Plus Grief . We're glad you're here . My name is Candy Lucas . I'm a Jesuit-trained chaplain , spiritual director , creator of this podcast , as well as a workshop on spiritual accompaniment through Santa Clara University . We all recognize that the loss of a loved one causes tremendous schisms in our life .
We lose our boundaries , we lose our place , we lose our loved ones and we are lost without them . I created this podcast four years ago to address those concerns . I come to you with the voice of a broken heart , having lost my father , my employment , a dear pet and a relationship with my sister last year . Thanks for being with us .
You're always welcome in our circle of healing , love and concern . Often scripture tells us where we are in God's universe and what's happening to us . In Micah , in verse 7 , it rings true to those of us in grief-- Woe is me . I am become like leavings of a fig harvest , like gleaming when the vintage is over .
There is not a cluster to eat , not a ripe fig I could desire . The pious are vanished from the land , none upright are left among men-- . It proceeds to describe an angry God , a God who is angry with the many everyday sins of his people . But we beseech him later in the verse-- Yet I will look to the Lord , I will wait for the God who saves me .
My God will hear us-- . What does this have to tell us about our grief journey ? It tells us that on any single day we may feel like that last leaf on the tree in the wind , in the middle of a storm , who refuses to let go Because it feels like that sometimes .
It also tells us our God watches and he waits and he knows for certain that we will eventually turn to him . We will eventually abandon all other pathways healing-- the groups , the half-truths we tell ourselves . Until we let go of that branch and fly freely into God's embrace , we can never fully experience that healing .
But letting go , that letting go is so hard . It feels like if we let go , we are letting go of our loved one , that we are letting go of our memories , that we are somehow abandoning our love for them . That letting go feels like a betrayal of that love , that trust , that connection .
But how do we truly move into healing , move into a true world of love and comfort and ease , knowing the love survives , knowing the love thrives , because we remember it , we treasure it and we continue to treat it like the precious jewel that it is . We do not let ourselves fall into despair .
Although God will meet us there , we do not allow ourselves to dwell in a past that is painful and not full of love , because that past will not let us move forward in love . We can remember our loved ones with ease and grace in all their days of living and being with us on this planet , or we can share in their new life .
What we Christians believe in , their new life , of love and healing , traveling as far as it takes , taking as long as it takes to reach them , to reach the end of our journey and be remembered and be held gently in God's embrace along with them .
So we pray today: Lord, healing God , lift up my heart , remember me in my loneliness , remember me as I cling , in the dark and the storm , to the leaf of what was , as a leaf to the branch that what was , and take away all my fear of staying in the past , of dwelling in the past , and allow me , in the dawn of your morning , Amen .
That concludes another episode of Solace . Thank you for being here . Again . I'm your host , Candee Lucas . Tune in every Friday when a new episode drops . You can find it on Apple Podcasts , Spotify and Amazon Music .
More information about the books we've discussed: scripture , my artwork , spiritual direction and my workshops through Santa Clara University in the show notes . God bless , vaya con Dios , namaste ,