I wish...but you know how the song goes, it only takes a spark to get a fire going...

It's a little tricky these days; but that's okay. I'm more able to take the twists and turns in this grief journey. This morning, I was cleaning out and sorting through a pile of Christmas bags from Christmases past (we use them as "stocking bags".) I found one that still had empty wrappings from two years ago...it had been Gary's stocking bag. That caused a minor flood. But those moments don't last long now, so that's healing-at-work, isn't it!

Just recently you shared a quote about peace...I still have it on my fridge...it helps a lot, because it reminds me that "this too shall pass" and that it's okay to feel the wound and the loss. I think the worst suffering comes from constantly trying to run away from the pain; the harder I work to escape or hide from it, the bigger the pain becomes. I'm finding that if I just sit still, face it, feel it, and acknowledge that the sadness is still healing and that it's OKAY to feel sad, the pain subsides and becomes much more manageable. And somehow just opening my mind and heart to feel compassion for my own sadness also opens up space in my heart for those sparks to fit in right alongside of the pain.