We have all seen the signs or said them ouselves is that "Accidents happen", "Divorce happens", "Shit happens" and "Change happens" but the one we haven't seen or said is the uncomfortable one that "Grief Happens".  The little things that trigger our grief like the memories, a fleeting thought, a song, a phrase, a word or any number of things can trigger the grief we feel on this journey.  It happens when we least expect it.  Sometimes it seems for us that it comes at the…

Oh, with all that I've done wrong, I must have done something right

To deserve a hug every morning and butterfly kisses at night

       From the song “Butterfly Kisses” by Tim McGraw

 Yesterday was no different from any other day on this grief journey.  I had actually gone to bed earlier than normal, before 10 PM.  I read for a bit of the book that a very dear friend sent me called “open to HOPE”. 

   I lay in bed thinking of how much…

Why?  I think we all ask ourselves that question on this journey.  Why is is not okay to say what you truly feel without worrying about it offending some one?  Why started out as the title but changed in the progress of writing this.  No offense intended but this is my thoughts on the events tonight and a comment that I saw, maybe not aimed at me but the person it was said to was a part of the original conversation.

Maybe I am a bit touchy tonight but no one truley knows who the real…

One year ago today, October 17, 2011, I set out on a return trip to join Jim in Corozal Town, Belize C.A.  Unbeknown to both of us when he picked me up that night at 9:30PM at the Mexico/Belize border that what we had thought was a new journey in our life was in fact the ending of one journey and another one to start in just two weeks and one day.  The first thing we each said to each other was “I love you and I am not ever going to do this again.”  We promised each other that we would no be…

Helpful ingredients to consider:

• A pot full fo tears
• One heart willing to be broken open
• a dash of bitters
• a bunch of good friends
• many handfuls of comfort food
• a lot of patience
• buckets of water to replace the tears
• plenty of exercise
• a variety of helpful reading material
• enouogh self care
• season with memoires
• optional:  one good therapist and/or support…

“It never dawned on me that if I had a choice I never would have let him go.  So God decides when it’s time for our souls to move forward, when it is time to leave this life.  None of us would simply relinquish our loved ones or ourselves for that matter:  “Okay, God take ‘em away! Good-bye!”  No I don’t see that happening.”  Excerpt from the book “Don’t Kiss Them Good-Bye” by Allison Dubois

She was talking about her father and the anger she was feeling at the funeral and…

This was sent to me in an e-mail today and I thought it worth sharing with all of my WV friends and family.

Recently, I overheard a mother and daughter  in their last moments together at the airport. They had announced the departure.…

I hear so many talk about hating being alone and the loneliness that goes with it that they feel and are having a hard time accepting it.  I guess having seen so much loss growing up as a child and later in my younger adult years that I learned or rather accepted the fact that in the end one of us is going to be alone and accepted death as a part of life.  So the being alone has not bothered me to much since Jim passed away.

I wasn't the sweet innocent person some people thought I was…

A little boy wanted to meet God. He knew it was a long trip to where God

lived, so he packed his suitcase with a bag of potato chips and a six-pack

of root beer and started his journey.

 

When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old woman. She was sitting

in the park, just staring at some pigeons.   The boy sat down next to her and opened his suitcase.

He was about to take a drink from his root beer when he noticed that the old lady looked

hungry, so he…