So many wonder how grieving parents continue on in a world without their child who died. How can they traverse the terrain where their child’s feet will never again tread? How do they keep going? Why do they continue on?
We keep going because we are the bridge builders.
We keep going because we are the connection between our child who has died and the world they left behind. Every time we speak their name, every act of kindness done in their memory, every beat of our aching hearts–it creates a stepping stone to the child we will always remember.
Because we are the bridge builders.
We are the ones who blaze trails with our hearts afire. Using our stories to light the way for others who must succumb to our darkness and for those can only ever peer in. To those who keep their distance, we seem lost. But those who dare to come closer see that we are tethered by love and memory.
We are the bridge builders.
Building bridges between the place we live and the place we can never visit. Using our words and our hearts to connect to a world beyond our grasp. Creating a pathway for those who may not know our pain, but who are inspired by our love. So that they may know our children. So they may know that our children are not lost. We will always know the way to find them.
Because we are the bridge builders.
We don’t build these bridges to walk them alone. We build these bridges so that others will join us. We hope for others to walk beside us and say our children’s names. We build these bridges so that others will come with us. So they will stand beside us as we straddle the realms of the dead and the living. In the place we’ve made with love and mourning.
Photo by Jake Melara on Unsplash
