Let me say from conviction that tears are the outlet of the heart.

The books talked about it [the heart] as if it were a sump pump stuck down in the muck and mire of somebody's backyard. Never in all my scientific reading did I encounter anything that talked about a broken heart. Never did I read anything about what the heart felt, how it felt or why it felt. Feeling and knowing weren't important, only understanding

The point is that hell is separate from love. If Lucifer knows anything, he knows that. And ever since Emma left, I'd known the same thing. It's a lonely, desolate place.

With the tears a Land hath shed Their graves should ever be green...

As a culture, we seem to have an intolerance for suffering; we tend to want those who have experienced a loss of any kind to get on with their lives as quickly as possible. Often, by minimizing the impact of significant losses, pathologizing those whose reactions are intense, and applauding those who seem relatively unaffected by tragic events, we encourage the inhibition of our own grief.

Even if you attempt to ignore the loss, the emotional experience of it is implanted in your heart and mind, and no eraser will remove it.

Numerous studies have shown that your health risk is higher following a loss.

was able to see God not as the source of our anguish but as the source of our ability to cope with it, to love and to comfort and to enjoy and ultimately to grieve for a very special child.

When they told me yesterday what had happened [the death of F. D. Roosevelt], I felt like the moon, the stars and all the planets had fallen on me.

You don't really get over it. It is such a great loss," Jane said. "I guess the depth of our grief is a reminder of the depth of our love.

She found peace in the assurance that they had both served as the Lord wished. With tears of thanksgiving upon her cheeks, she thanked her Lord for relief of the dark despair that had threatened to consume her. There was reason to go on. And she had God's promise. And though she missed Stephen with all her heart, knowledge that the Lord was with her was enough.

Real joy seems to me almost as unlike security or prosperity as it is unlike agony.