Hey! I noticed the flowers

This week as I approached my counsellor's front porch, I noticed a beautiful purple potted Mum sitting by the stairs. It had so many little flowers that together they made up a great big ball of purple flowers. I couldn't help but comment on the beauty of this Mum when he came to the door to greet me.

Seems like a silly thing to write about, I know. But the memory of those flowers came back to me and that's when I realized their significance.

In that moment I had been still enough to feel the beauty of nature. A heart-warming feeling of joy arose in my noticing these flowers. Simple yet profound.

There was a peace about me in that moment that I could feel joy through a plant. It reminds how we truly are connected to everything because everything is connected to God's love. I feel blessed by this moment and it gives me hope that I will have more joyful moments where I am still enough and at peace enough in a world without my beloved son.

It really is all about the little things. But often we miss those little things and when the bigger things happen we never see them as big enough to appreciate.

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It feels like yesterday: Grief at one-year

The fog has returned
My focus and clarity gone
Grief has settled in again
I am tired; my body slumps and is too heavy to carry. I want to sleep.

We are now in the last days before Xavier died. He was alive this day last year. But on May 13 there is no living memory of him last year, aside from a couple hours of unconscious sleep before he took his last breath beside me. I held my breath with him waiting for the next and it didn’t come.

We had a great few days this week last year and he was full of laughs, full of life! We saw a glimpse of this again in ICU. Then he deteriorated.

The zipper that keeps us all inside Earth started to split. His connection to this plane was ripping apart. When the zipper fully detached he was opened to eternity.

This week has been challenging, constantly fighting back memories of this time last year. Painful memories of life and death decisions. Time is nothing. It hurts just as bad now as it did last year. My grief had been contained, but is now wide open.

But…

Grief and gratitude: What's the connection?

It has been a while since my last post.

I don't know how many times I and other bloggers have likely used this opening. But as boring and cliche as those words are, there is hope within this opening line.

Hope.

I haven't written because I haven't needed to like I have in the past to release the overwhelming whirlpool of emotions splashing out of me with nowhere to go but into words on a page. Journaling has always been a wonderful tool for me when I am experiencing intense feelings or untamed stress.

In fact my lack of posts is because I have been preoccupied with life. A life I want to live despite losing one of my greatest gifts in my life, my son Xavier.

But in the last month, I have experienced joy and the gifts my precious son left here for me. I would give anything and everything to have him here with me, but having accepted the reality that is just not possible, I now choose to focus on the positives this experience has brought to my life.

I have started a new job …

Don’t go 2017!

New Years A time of reflection. A time of celebration. A time of joy and a time of sorrow.
I approach 2018 with so many mixed emotions. This year has been hell on Earth. The pain and heartache of losing Xavier will forever be how we remember 2017. But leaving this year and starting anew fills me with an overwhelming sadness. To say goodbye to this awful year is to also say goodbye to the last year I will ever see Xavier alive. He lived in 2017. I have memories we made together in 2017. Next year I will have none. He will not lived a day in 2018. New Year’s is one more piercing stab of reality he is gone. 2017 was the worst year of my life, yet I want to hang onto it forever. Hidden within the brokenness of 2017 was also a year of immeasurable growth: growth in my faith, my spirituality and my awareness of who I really am. I lost my son and found insight. Things I had been searching for in my life and trying to make sense of suddenly became clear. I found strength I never knew existed…

The Book of Me

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