Monday, January 30, 2012

Time To Rest




So I am finally writing again and a few weeks have passed since I wrote about being on the beach in San Diego. As we have turned the corner and moved into 2012, I have had a few thoughts I would like to share. We have the opportunity at the beginning of each New Year to do self-reflection and identify places where there can be improvement in our lives.
For me personally, I know that there are some changes that are needed in my life. Many of you know I love processing and the work that I am involved with at the Institute of Healing Arts. After Lindsey passed I poured my heart and soul into my work to help me cope with the grief that I was experiencing. It seemed to help time pass more quickly and work helped distance me from the pain of her death. Because of the overwhelming grief it seemed like I only had two options. One was to work, and work hard or go to bed and die. I chose to work.
I do believe that hard work can be a solution for many things. My mother taught me to work hard and helped me to see that it could help my feelings of sadness and depression. She taught me that serving others was the very medicine that would pull me out of feeling sorry for myself and help me move towards productivity and being able to find meaning in my life. After Lindsey passed I needed to work and I needed to work hard. I am grateful for the blessing of work for the last few months.
Now, I feel that I can start to slow down and catch my breath. Maybe because time has passed I am ready to move on into some different phase of my personal grieving. Now, I get to include some other ways of coping and since some time has passed it doesn’t seem to hurt so bad as it did at first. So for me working hard was the solution and now having it balance out and slow down will be my focus for 2012.
I have had to get used to a lot of changes. Things are different, very different without Lindsey and Josh and the way we once knew them. Josh is busy working and going to school and our family functions are often missing these two precious children. I am not only grieving the loss of Lindsey but, also the loss of Josh in the role that he had when she was alive. At family dinners and other events, I have to keep counting my children to see if we are all there. Mothers who have lost children have expressed that they have felt this same way. The dynamics have changed so much.
Sometimes I want go back and remember the way it was and yet a larger part of me wants to move forward. Because I know that Lindsey is not in the past but, will be reunited with our family in the future. So it is forward that we are moving, all of us, as time takes us where it will. And in the year 2012, the year predicted for great change, I will continue to work, but at a more balanced pace. I am settling into the changes that have already presented themselves in our family, and I will continue to find moments of joy and celebrate living and life itself with a deep sense of reverence.
The other thing I wanted to share is that after the whole experience with Lindsey I thought there would never be another hard thing. It felt like the whole experience with Lindsey’s illness and her death totally topped everything I have ever been through. But I still face challenges and I have to make hard decisions and there is adversity and struggle even in everyday living. As I face these difficulties I can be reassured that whatever I face in 2012 it will never be another brain tumor. That after four brain tumors it is done and nothing compares to those experiences. And when I see the current adversity and say to myself, “this is nothing compared to a brain tumor” it minimizes the difficulty that I am experiencing and makes it feel miniscule or small. And I remember that I can handle hard things, because, if I can do what I did with Lindsey over the past eleven years, and then in the end . . . letting her go . . . I can do anything.
So I am facing 2012 with a desire to work hard but, also realizing that life doesn’t have to be so hard. I can live from joy and peace knowing that Lindsey isn’t suffering anymore and is finally resting. It is my time to rest too.



No comments: