Undaunted Reality at Its Undaunted Beautifullest

Yesterday my friend Cindy Cain wrote a post of great courage. I want to share it with you because I believe it expresses what a lot of women who are single again by circumstance and not by desire feel at different times. What she wrote is something I could have written on untold number of days in the last nearly seven years, especially in the last few months. I want you to know I don't talk to Cindy on a regular basis, but this is not a woman who has crawled into a hole and hidden or stayed in bed or just packed life away into a cedar chest or a closet in some back room. This is a woman who has done beautiful things and lives beautifully, gives beautifully, and loves deeply. Sometimes loving deeply makes the days really hard. That isn't a failure. It's an empty place.

I encourage all of you to click over to Cindy's and read her post. If you really take it in, it'll make you a better person, a more compassionate person, and people who have hard days need compassionate people who get it.

Blessings...
Jerri

Some Years and Better Than Others

 

This year has been tough

Well, This Day

 

 

Today would have been our 36th wedding anniversary

But God saw differently

And I'm sad (keep reading)

Mother's Day

I posted the following on Semper Tails (both the blog and Facebook page), and I thought I would share it here as well in case someone might wander over and need it.

Today is Mother's Day according to the secular calendar. MyJerri isn't really into Mother's Day because when a mother is missing or a child is missing, it can be a hard day. So I thought I would offer some thoughts on how to get through today.

 

Be kind to yourself. Really.

 

Be brave. Being brave doesn't always mean doing the normal despite the pain. Sometimes being brave is choosing not to do the normal even when people don't understand. Did I mention be kind to yourself?

 

Do something that feels like joy. Maybe it is going to your favorite place or eating your favorite junk food while you watch you favorite movie or hanging with some folks you love.

 

If you need to, go to a grave and stand there. Be heartbroken. Go through a box of kleenes. Write a letter. Lift a toast and leave a glass untouched. Grieve what is gone or what never came. Grief is its own kind of courage.

 

Don't celebrate if you don't want to. If your church or place of worship makes a big deal of Mother's Day and that feels crushing to you, take a week off. God gets it even if no one else does. It isn't walking out on Him. It is trusting Him to love you where you are, literally and figuratively.

 

Celebrate the time you had.

 

Celebrate the mom you had or the children you had. Even if they aren't connected by blood, they are just as real and just as beautiful. They are gift and are worth celebrating.

 

Most of all, make it through today. If that is all you can do, then do you all you can and feel proud of yourself.

Praying you find joy and love today...and above all else, may you know you are loved by God.

Shalom and puppy love,

Semper