When Words See You

Have you ever been deeply moved by a song, a scene in a movie, or something you read? That moment when someone else’s words echo exactly how you feel—it’s powerful.

Since my husband’s death, this has happened often. Sometimes I expect it—like when reading a book about grief. But not always. Some pages fall flat. Then suddenly, a passage stops me in my tracks. It says: “You get me.” Those are the ones I underline, save to my phone, or carry in my heart.

One such moment came while reading Nora McInerny’s It’s Okay to Laugh (Crying is Cool Too):

“Grief is weird, guys. Most books talk about it in nature terms, like it is a churning ocean, with waves and riptides and eddies that can pull you under. But mine is more like an expert stalker, adept at sneaking up on me undetected and strangling me from behind. He’s too slick for most people to notice, but he’s there in the shadows, lurking at the edge of my happy Instagram photos, waiting to choke me out.”

I read that and felt seen.

It happens in unexpected places too—fiction, movies, even Disney songs.

• When Anna sang “The Next Right Thing” in Frozen 2, I sobbed in the theater.

• I’ve watched P.S. I Love You too many times to count, and still feel the ache when Hilary Swank listens to her husband’s voicemail after the funeral.

• And recently, Fredrik Backman’s My Friends left me breathless with this:

"Soon, Ted will stand up and discover that he’s forgotten how to walk too. That happens to us all when the love of our life falls asleep for the last time. Because when the soul leaves the body evidently the last thing it does is tie our shoelaces together. In the weeks following the death we trip over thin air. It’s the soul’s fault.’”

These words weren’t mine, but they gave voice to what I could not articulate. They reminded me: I am not alone.

Because when people are grieving, they don’t want to be fixed. They want to be understood.

I’ve never met these authors or artists, but I am grateful to them. They saw me without even knowing me—and helped me keep walking when my shoelaces were tied.

✨ When was the last time something you read, heard, or watched caught your breath and gave you strength in a difficult moment?

#Grief #WritingThatHeals #CatholicPsych #IntegratedHealing #MosaicMentorship