I sat and listened to my anger

This quote struck me today.. "I sat with my anger long enough, until I realized her name was grief." oh how I can relate to this... but as a mental health professional can I help? Yes!!!  Anger alerts me to the fact that I fear loss.  Well sometimes a more appropriate response to loss is...sadness and acceptance. Does it make me mad...yes, but staying here does not help me or my loved ones.

Anger is not wrong, but it can lead to stuckness...Anger is an ok part of it, but we can get stuck in it. And sadly, anger is addictive and it can keep us in that stuckness longer than need be.  Loss comes to us in many different ways. Sometimes it's the death of a loved one. Sometimes just untimely. Sometimes it is loss of health, relationship or ability, property. Can we be mad? Heck yeah, but the only reason we are mad, is that we are first sad....so desperately sad. Or scarred...And we did not know what to do. That is actually scarier than mad. Mad is ready to fight and argue...sad is just..sad. Scared is scared. Yet, when we are dealing with deep grief there is absolutely NO avoiding that sad. I'm sorry friend, I would love to spare you of that,  but it cannot be. Believe it or not allowing oneself to feel the very deep sadness  or fear, allows us to connect with God. If you allow it, it can take you to a place that you wrestle with your God and Savior in a way you never have believed possible. Embracing the sadness and the anger can drive us to cry out to God, "Why?" and in our wrestling we encounter "How" and in that encounter we discover relationship! And the answer to how.
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