Healing Hearts

My hope is...

By Coral Popowitz, Executive Director, Children's Grief Connection

At Hearts of Hope family grief camp our cuddly mascot teddy bear named "Hope" passes around slips of paper that say:                 
                          My hope is...

Blank slips meant to be filled in with words, wishes, thoughts, feelings, hopes for what the future may bring now that someone in their life has died.

Hope is defined at Hearts of Hope Camp as: the feeling that everything is going to be okay. Not great, maybe not even good... for awhile.

It's hard to think anything will be great again now that hearts are broken by death, but being okay, having hope, that seems possible.

And so "Hope" collects My hope is... slips in her big white basket. She holds them like a penny in a wishing pool, keeping the hopes and wishes of grieving children and families safe and sacred. 

Slips of hope that read:

My hope is... people can accept me the way I am, even with all my flaws.

      or

My hope is.... to not be scared of dying.

      or 

My hope is...to live with happy memories of my dad.

Death may take away our loved one, it may change our lives in big ways we're not sure we can cope with and in little ways we never imagined until we had to live on without them.  Life is hope and the death of someone we love doesn't have to take that from us.

This blog is about hope, about living life with hope, with gratitude and kindness. It's about people, places, things that inspire.  It's about trust, trust in the goodness of people and their ability to find hope...to know things will be okay. My hope is...these postings bring comfort, understanding, humor, joy and a little bit of healing to the hearts of all who read them.