Mapping the Journey

Surviving the death of someone dear catapults us into the liminal place: a unique, slowed down, here-and-now time in which the doings of everyday life seem irrelevant. The liminal place is pregnant with meaning and wild possibility. Anything can happen here, it can be: calm or uplifting, profound or frightening. We have never done this death before. It is at these times that we turn totraditions and rituals for structure, protection and guidance. Despite the enormous variability of death experiences, having a map would assist us in noticing the fact that over time there is change and usually an easing of the pain. I have created just such a map. The concepts in this map are integrated from Jewish tradition, from models of mourning, and from my own personal experience, and experience as a hospital and hospice chaplain. It is not an exhaustive account of the mourning process, nor is it meant to be a scholarly work about mourning or about Jewish beliefs in the afterlife. It is a poetic/ artistic response to our most painful human experience.