This episode of Nurah Speaks is a deeply personal reflection on love, loss and what I've learned from grief.
In Episode 260, “Losing Ellen,” I chronicle the story of losing my grandmother, Ellen, and walk listeners through my experience before and after her passing along with what grief has revealed to me along the way.
Losing my grandmother was an excruciating loss—filled with agony and heartbreak—but also with moments of profound love and deep gratitude. Those who have accompanied a loved one through their final days understand this painful irony: the trauma of loss co-occurring with all the beautiful, tender and loving moments just before.
On Nurah Speaks, we do not shy away from life's hard but important truths. Death can arrive in a single moment or it can unfold slowly through a series of moments of months or even years.
How we manage death— the acceptance of it as a normal part of life—can help us survive the very, very lows while honoring the love that remains.
This episode is for anyone navigating grief, learning how to carry the love that remains and discovering who they are now, after loss.
If you watch the live recording of this episode on the Nurah Speaks Youtube channel, I include some of my favorite photos of my grandmother with friends and family.
WHEN GREAT TREES FALL
Maya Angelou
When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.
When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.
When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.
Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold
caves.
And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.
For more information on grief, I included two helpful links below:
•https://grief.com/the-five-stages-of-grief/•https://grief.com/10-best-worst-things-to-say-to-someone-in-grief/
If you would like to engage with the podcast, submit your listener questions to [email protected]. Listeners can also learn more by visiting NurahSpeaks.com.
You can follow Nurah Speaks on X, Instagram and Facebook @NurahSpeaks and subscribe to the channel on YouTube.
Remember, don’t just Join the Movement, Be the Movement!
