This week has been challenging. Just a year ago, on Oct. 21st, my oldest son, Joel, died unexpectedly. Wow has life changed for our family! These unexpected events can turn our world upside down, and some days we wonder if we can go on.
Yet, I am so thankful to The Lord, to my church family, to family and friends for all the support and help along the journey. Overall, I feel like I have grown through this in a pretty healthy way, and most days now are positive and good. There are definitely very sad times, where I get ambushed by grief and memories, and I will say this last week was full of them. But I realize ultimately these are good too, because I try to take time to work through and deal with my grief rather than just pushing it back under.
Griefshare, a national support group, has been such a tremendous help to me, and I highly recommend it to anyone working through grief. You can check it out at http://www.griefshare.org You can learn from the site, receive a daily email of encouragement (that are so “right on” and helpful), and join in on a local group if you desire – highly recommended! Many people come, even years later after their loss, realizing they have tried to “stuff it down”, yet it doesn’t go away until you really work through it in healthy ways.
Where it really hurts is watching family members who are having a more difficult time working through their grief. How my heart hurts for them and wants to “fix it” for them, yet I know it is a personal journey for everyone.
I am so thankful for what I have learned through GriefShare, through Scripture, and through the teachings in MKE to help me have a strong hope for the future, purpose in living, and direction to be focused on.
Suffering a back injury about 18 months ago, that changed my life drastically as well, has brought many challenges and decisions. Not being able to return to my profession of over 30 years, Occupational Therapy, has led me on a path of “What is the right fit for me know professionally”. This is an ongoing journey, yet I am so glad I have my Definate Major Purpose to guide me forward.
I hope when you have those tough moments, you will also take time to reflect, remember, work through your loss, and then leave that behind and put your focus forward again – reaching toward your own personal goals and dreams, guided by your Definate Major Purpose!
Have a blessed week!
Karin