Loss & Healing

In the chapter entitled, "Stories of Loss and Healing," I describe what I learned from healing through loss. Brian was a good teacher and after he was gone I learned from the loss of others, too. This was painful, but it gave me a more clear and complete understanding of the grieving process. Few people go through "stages" of grief, I discovered. Instead, they use preferred "roles" of challenge. I realized that the characters in the Wizard of Oz are archetypes of these roles, and that they reveal many important aspects of the healing process. Then, utilizing over thirty years of experience as an outdoor challenge course facilitator, I describe how all of our challenges begin with emptiness (grief), and how we can use this emptiness to heal—a process that goes beyond the limits of our reasonable mind.

“Nothing you love is lost. Not really. Things, people—they always go away, sooner or later.
You can’t hold them, any more than you can hold moonlight. But if they’ve touched you, if they’re inside you,
then they’re still yours. The only things you ever really have are the ones you hold inside your heart.”

—Bruce Coville, Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher (One of Brian’s favorite books)

Share Your Stories

Stories of Loss and Healing forum...
Share stories of loss and healing you think would be helpful to others.