A Push Towards Perspective

I recently came across something written by a woman that I found to be simultaneously heartbreaking and inspiring.  This article, which ran in Vogue magazine entitled "The Long Road Back: How to Keep Going After the Unimaginable Happens," is the story of tragedy - but it is even more about love and strength and coping.

I found some of the words of the author, whose name is Madonna Badger, to be particularly moving.  When she recounts the two things that happened that she found helpful as she was going through the boxes in the warehouse, it makes me think back to the students with whom I worked in the months after my dad died.  Like Badger, through my work, I saw two things occur that nudged me in the right direction in the early depths of my grief: I too had to stay "in the present moment," and I saw for the first time that, although there was often ample opportunity for the grief that was upon others around me to incapacitate them, the people who made certain choices in the midst of hardship were able to survive without losing more of themselves than they had been forced to through the adversity. That, I guess, was my push towards perspective.