I wasn’t born with an “I don’t give a hoot” gene.
When I commit to a person, a project or a problem, I’m all in-no holding back.
That’s why this side of Dominic’s leaving I’ve been very cautious about making commitments. But in the past year I’ve begun branching out and joining in again.
In many ways it has been a positive experience.
In other ways, not so much.
Read the rest here: Emotional Bankruptcy: I Can’t Spend the Same Energy Twice
I thought I had at least a passing understanding of what grief is, what it feels like, how it impacts a heart before my son died.
But I was wrong.
Until you live with it day in and day out for weeks, months, years you really just. don’t. know.
There are so many feelings wrapped up in what we call grief. So many surprises along this path.
Who knew that the same heart that would do nearly ANYTHING to spare another parent the awful burden of child loss could also be wildly jealous of that same parent’s intact family?
I confess, mine has been.
I have scrolled through social media posts about fun family vacations, beautiful weddings, newborn grandchildren, happy graduations, first jobs, Christmas photos, and family reunions where the number of people present fill the frame to the edges of the picture and been angry instead of happy for them.
It takes every ounce of self-control not to covet what I will never have.
Jealousy is a green-eyed monster and I want no part of it.
But I have to fight to keep it at bay.
I have to recall the years I was given with all my children happy around my table. I have to remember the laughter, the shared experiences, the love and fun.
I have to focus on the gift and not the loss.
Sometimes I can. Sometimes I can’t.
It’s getting a little easier now to “rejoice with those who rejoice” and not also feel jealousy lurking in the shadows.
I pray one day I won’t feel that green-eyed monster breathing down my neck at all.
Often bereaved parents dread the major holiday season that starts in November and lasts through January. We brace ourselves for THOSE days because they loom large on the calendar and give fair warning.
But the year is chock full of minor holidays and other celebrations that require just as much emotional energy as the “big” ones.
If I’m not careful, they will slip up on me and drain me dry.
So here’s how I try to approach them.
It helps my heart.
Maybe it will help yours too. ❤
One of the most challenging things that faced me immediately after Dominic’s funeral was that we had two college graduations, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, his birthday, a wedding and my own thirtieth wedding anniversary within two months.
Thankfully we had some amazing friends and family that stepped up and filled in the gaps.
Read the rest here: Be Free to Celebrate [or Not!]
Yesterday’s post was a mess for those of you who receive it through email.
I’m sorry.
What had been a previous draft was tacked onto the bottom of what I wanted to send out so the whole thing was not really how I meant it to be.
But maybe it was how it should have been.
Because that’s where I find myself so often this side of child loss-all the careful editing of words and careful managing of appearances is impossible. I just don’t have the resources or the energy. So too often (for my own comfort and probably the comfort of others) the words just tumble out.
A fire hose instead of the gentle trickle I’d rather them be.
That’s why I rely on writing whenever possible. It gives me a chance to start, stop and revisit what I want to say and how I want to say it.
But yesterday, well, you got the fire hose version.
There was so much I wanted to say-I wanted to thank Brenda for the portrait and share how having a new picture was truly a balm for my soul-and also to express how I am still unbelievably sad that my son will never grow older.
I intended to blend the two into a seamless post but couldn’t do it so I left it alone for a few hours. Grief brain kicked in, I forgot about the second bit and just hit “publish”.
So you got the messy version. The version that lives inside my heart and mind most days. It’s not pretty and there is a constant battle between hope and helplessness.
I work hard to hold onto hope.
I keep fighting.
But it’s messy.
I don’t cry nearly as much as I used to.
That kind of bothers me.
I don’t know if I’m just not as sad or if I’ve just used up most of my tears.
I think it’s a bit of both.
I DO still cry. And I try hard to remember that I do not need to be ashamed of my tears. I don’t need to apologize for them-even if they make some folks uncomfortable.
Because, gee whiz(!), if YOU are uncomfortable watching me cry, how uncomfortable do you think I am that I risk crying in public?
Weeping is NOT something which Christians are not supposed to do or to feel. Hot tears sliding down our cheeks, salty in the corner of our lips, is not a wrong thing to feel as part of our experience of life. It is only when the final enemy is destroyed and the last victory is won that all tears are to be wiped away. Until then we are meant to weep with those who weep, as well as to rejoice with those who rejoice … It is God who will wipe away all tears.
~Edith Schaeffer, Affliction
Sometimes I wish I could cry more. I wish I could still get the release that sobs secured early on in this journey.
Now the aching sorrow seeps deep into my bones and settles in the marrow only to be freed when my body joins Dominic’s in the ground.
The truth is, I still hurt.
The tears are always near the surface but I can’t always let them flow.
I need to cry.
I need to bear witness to this ongoing grief and give vent to the deep pain that my heart carries every. single. day.
I find it remarkable that even though Jesus himself mourned with tears, many within the Christian community set their jaw in opposition to this practice of ‘godly mourning and weeping.’ In our culture, we seem to have lost the significant practice of mourning and weeping. This lack has taken a toll on us physically, emotionally, and spiritually … Waiting and weeping go hand-in-hand.
~Jan Frank, A Graceful Waiting
I’m waiting for the day my tears will be redeemed. Waiting for the restoration of what the enemy has stolen. Waiting for faith to become sight.
Trusting.
Holding on.
Offering my tears as testimony to both my sorrow and my hope.
God not only knows your tears, but He records them and retains them? Why? So that one day He may transform them into gems of joy and glory. No tears are ever wasted when you follow Him.
~Warren Wiersbe, With the Word
I’m not sure when I began practicing this but I make a habit of telling people I love them even if it makes them uncomfortable.
I remember saying it to my granddaddy who never told anyone-as far as I know-that he loved them.
I spoke it over each child as soon as she or he was laid in my arms.
Growing up, I closed every telephone conversation with, “I love you” and taught my husband to do the same.
I also try hard to tell people other important things right when I think of them, instead of “later”-whenever THAT may be.
I’m so, so glad I do and I did.
I have many regrets about Dominic’s too-soon departure from this life.
But I don’t have this one: Unspoken words of love and affirmation.
The last time he was home, it was nearing final exams and I felt like I needed him to know how very proud I was of him and how very much I admired the man he had become. So I stopped him as he was leaving, turned his strong shoulders to face me square, and looked him in the eye to give him words of blessing.
I didn’t get to hold his hand as he left this life.
But I’m confident as he breathed his last, he knew he was loved.
Don’t wait to tell the people that are important to you that they ARE important to you.
Don’t save words for “next time”, “later” or “when we get together again”.
Just say it.
Now.
Right now.
In case you are wondering, there appears to be no limit to the depth or number of struggles one may be required to endure this side of heaven.
Sure we’ve all read Job and give mental assent to overwhelming breadth of his loss.
But, really, how can our hearts even begin to comprehend it when devastation upon devastation is given within seven verses-everything he owned and everything he loved (except his wife) was stolen or destroyed.
It’s so easy to read it and not to FEEL it.
I’m here to tell you I know parents who have lost more than one child. Parents who have lost their only child. Parents who have lost a child and then lost their living children’s love and companionship because their family fell apart. I know bereaved parents who are homeless because they couldn’t keep a job after burying their child.
In addition, there are the everyday struggles we all have to deal with-bad bosses, financial troubles, health issues, frustrating interpersonal relationships.
Right now our family is facing the culmination of a situation that began before Dominic ran ahead to heaven. I’m not free to discuss it but it’s the kind of thing where you need legal advice.
And you want to know what’s harder than dragging my fanny through this nasty mess?
The salt it’s rubbing in the wound of my broken heart.
Because if Dominic were here, he’d be three years out of law school and ready to rock and roll. I’d have a personal hot line to all the legal counsel a body could stand. And if he didn’t know the answer, he would have access to the kinds of resources that could find it.
Instead we have to rely on strangers and hope that they have at least a smidgen of the commitment our own son would have were he able to represent our cause.
I hate so many things about this life.
I hate that the life I thought I would have-the life our whole family thought we would have-is not the one we are stuck with. One of the things I hate most is every moment when Dominic SHOULD be here and he’s not.
I miss my son.
Not only for the free legal advice, but because his presence lent courage to my heart.
Every hard thing is harder now.
And that is definitely salt in this wound.
![Repost: Be Free to Celebrate [Or Not!]](https://thelifeididntchoose.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/family-reunion.jpg?w=600)
