…we are sorry you need us, but glad you found us.

This is the club no one wants to join.  And yet here we all are, drawn together by the one thing we have in common: We are grieving with the knowledge that our loss is forever, that there is no heaven above, no spirits sending us signs, no divine plan that led us here and no reunion in our future.

Some of us have found other ways to think about death that bring us some measure of peace, what Greta Christina calls, “comforting thoughts about death that have nothing to do with God.”  Maybe you will share your own in a comment here on the blog or in a Forum thread.  No one of us knows all the answers when it comes to grief; we couldn’t possibly, because we all grieve differently.

And yet, there are things we share: experiences, fears, emotions, the way grief comes in waves, crashing down on us when we least expect it, the way grief makes us feel like we just might be losing our minds.  Read a few of the dozens of personal stories in the Library and you will find that someone somewhere has suffered as you are suffering now.  And it hurts to read, but sometimes, somehow, it also helps.

Some people wonder what comfort those without faith might be able to offer each other.  We don’t pray.  We don’t promise “someday…”  We don’t tell each other to put our faith in anything for which we have no evidence.

But the thing is, when you look around this space, you do find evidence of one comforting fact: Other nonbelievers — atheists, seculars, Humanists, whatever they call themselves — have learned to live with grief in their lives.  And when we gather here, we are able to teach each other what worked for us, in hopes it might work for someone else. We have even seen Grief Beyond Belief members find ways to move forward in their lives, and slowly, when they were ready, to move away from this community.

You may just need a resource, or something to listen to or read.  Or you may want to stay a while.  It’s up to you how you use this space.  We have a few rules to keep us all as safe as possible.  Maybe you’ll have an idea about how to make griefbeyondbelief.org a more useful, more comforting place.  Or maybe you just need a safe place to listen, learn, and think.

Grief Beyond Belief is not counseling or group therapy; it’s just people helping people without evangelism, mysticism or any other BS.  It is what we make it.  Thank you for coming.