This morning, a phone call woke me up before dawn. As I stumbled in the dark half asleep trying to reach my cell, the call went to voicemail. When I listened to the message it dawned on me that this was not a random call, but rather a well played message from the beyond.
“My heart is drenched in wine, you will be on my mind forever” Norah Jones Loss. It is all-consuming. We see it all around us. The media is filled with its images and the Haiti earthquake is a painful reminder to us all that loss can strike at any moment. When loss hits close to home, it cuts deep, leaving us with a sense that it will be with us forever. But the point is that we are not meant to escape from its heartbreaking grip. We are meant to work through our pain and loss, because it is through loss that the most incredible opportunities for growth and renewal occur. […]
We need not shy away from darkness, nor do we need to suppress our journeying through darkness. To ensure that we don’t get stuck in a state of emergency, but rather continue in a state of emergence, we need to bring in the light of wisdom, discernment and inner knowing. This Light combined with the loving energy of creativity, passion, service to others, and joy will help complete our metamorphosis.
Shock, Assessment, Plan, Support, Rebuild I wrote this article in January, 2009, over a year and a half ago. According to my web stats, it is one of my most read posts. I remember when I was writing it, our family was going through a person crisis, as my husband battled cancer. At the time, I considered titling the post, “What fighting cancer has taught me about coping with the current economic crisis”. I decided not to, because I didn’t feel it was appropriate to bring in my personal story and experiences into a public blog (have my perceptions of social media ever changed since!). Yet, as I was writing it, I realized how much the coping mechanisms for any crisis (whether personal, professional, global or local) have many of the same aspects when it comes to how they affect us and how we react to them. I am sharing this post again here today, because I hope it will help anyone who is trying to cope with a difficult crisis in their lives – [...]
Often life's most important teachers come in small packages. It is true that children are resilient. But, why is that? What is it that helps them move through loss more effortlessly than we do?
Rebuilding my life from the ruins of loss Five months ago, when my husband passed away, I started to spiral downwards. For a year and half prior to his death, I had tried to keep it together, to be the strong and supportive wife, mother, bread-winner and care giver. I couldn’t imagine how I would heal my broken heart or how I would fill the gaping hole that his passing left behind. When faced with such a dramatic life changing event, my whole world literally turned upside down. […]
