Thread by @StefSimanowitz

"If you see me – shivering & dumbed with loss – stand by me. Because grief needs a witness.”

Today, people in the USA will come together in a moment of collective grief for the 400,000 souls lost to #COVID19 there

#CovidMemorialDay is a day for all of us
amnesty.org/en/latest/news…

Grief is the collateral damage of love. The deeper the love, the more painful the grief

Shakespeare warns
“Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak whispers o’er-fraught heart & bids it break”

#COVIDMemorialDay is a day to put words to our sorrow
covidmemorialday.org.uk/2020/12/20/cov…

One doesn’t truly recover from loss

If you are lucky, you will heal from loss

But never completely

Unless we process our grief it can turn into anger or depression

We've seen a lot of that over the last year

#CovidMemorialDay is a moment to remember

A moment to grieve.

“Everything I have ever learned
in my lifetime leads back to this

The fires and the black river of loss

Whose other side is salvation

Whose meaning none of us will ever know.”

Sue McAlpine reads ‘In Blackwater Woods’ by Mary Oliver for #CovidMemorialDay (via @CovidMemoryDay)

“Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.”

Actress/director, Simona Hughes (@about500theatre), reads The Stolen Child by W.B Yeats for #CovidMemorialDay.
#coronavirus #COVID19

“Even when the sky is grey
Even when the rain is falling down
My heart will never need no reason why
So when the night turns into day
We spread our dreams & lighten up the sky
Its on the wings of prayer that we can fly”
@ilanalorraine for #CovidMemorialDay

“Does grief exceed words, or is it the other way around? How do you give voice to the animal howling inside of you?”

Today, people across the USA will share their collective grief for 400,000 Americans lost to #COVID19

Take a moment to grieve.
#CovidMemorialDay #coronavirus

I’ve always remembered the 2007 @bruceparry documentary where he’s leaving a tiny island & the entire village with whom he’s lived, come to the beach

They all start to cry
Then Bruce cries
Then you cry

We’ve lost our rituals of grieving & of collective grief.
#CovidMemorialDay

The rituals of grief may be gone but the grief remains

We’re not shown or taught how to deal with loss: our own or other people's

We bottle up grief & are surprised to find ourselves weeping at the death of an elephant on a TV wildlife show

Yet our own grief goes unprocessed.

“To heal, we must remember. It’s hard sometimes to remember. But that’s how we heal. It’s important to do that as a nation.” @JoeBiden

Collective grief is powerful

It makes the weight of loss feel lighter. #CovidMemorialDay #COVID19 #coronavirus #COVID

“I had no idea how much that was needed.”

Because we bury grief

& avoid grief

& are even made to feel other people’s awkwardness at our grief

We can forget how important grieving is

When we allow ourselves to grieve, we feel better for it

We feel lighter.
#COVIDMemorialDay