May 1 2016

This month our theme is when you grieve, will you mourn?  Did you know that grieving and mourning are two different things?  Grief is the natural reaction to loss and involves what you experience on the inside.  On the other hand, mourning is taking your grief from the inside and expressing it on the outside.  One woman I know mourned by taking her dog for a walk to an empty parking lot and then crying out.   Another wrote letters to her loved one.  Others cried, talked to a family member, friend or grief companion, slept, ran, etc. – mourning takes many forms.

Ghost bikes are an example of mourning.  They memorialize cyclists killed or hit on the street.  Along with a plague, a bicycle is painted all white and placed near the scene of the accident.  Creating memorials like a ghost bike helps us heal and provides us with a place to go to mourn and remember our loved one.