What happens when a loved one dies? Hans Stolp shows that we often do not realize what is happening and how every mourning process is also a transformation process.
When a loved one dies, the shock is usually so great that we don't really realize what is happening. We see it, but we don't realize it. Only later, when we come to realize that it is really true that our loved one will never come back, do the feelings that his or her death evoked in us surface. And then the long road of living through the sadness and loneliness begins. For many, this period is also the time when we start asking all kinds of questions such as: what is death actually? We want to know and understand. And that is why it is precisely this period of sorrow that is often the beginning of a new, spiritual path in life. With our sensitivity we can initially very well follow the path of our loved one on the other side of death. But the further it travels, the thinner the connection becomes.
And then we really feel alone. Some people need to talk a lot, others don't. But whatever our personal attitude is, for almost everyone processing the grief means going through a dark tunnel, in which you sometimes can't see a hand in front of your eyes. Only after the deepest darkness does some light begin to dawn again, we can open ourselves very carefully, step by step, to life again. And when the end of the tunnel comes into view, you have become a different person on that long journey through the dark. Because every grieving process is also a transformation process.
Only available in the Dutch edition.
