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| The road ahead Highway 401, near Trenton, ON August 2013 |
About this photo: We're winding down this week's muted colors theme (click here for a last-minute submission), and getting ready for tonight's launch of our new theme, sadness.This is what the drive home from Montreal to London looks like. Don't worry: I wasn't driving. And while I hung out in the passenger seat, I played with my iPad and tried to entertain the kids in back. I'm not sure if I succeeded (I'll let you judge by the selfie I've posted here), but I'm glad I tried.
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It had been a tough trip back to the place where we grew up, a tough experience to cap off a month that had served up more than its fair share. It had been been six months since Debbie lost her mom, and we were back in Montreal for her unveiling - the dedication of her gravestone. As part of the prescribed rituals around Jewish grieving, it's an important, logical step in the process, a critical milestone for the family. None of this makes it any easier, of course: it still stings, we still miss her immensely, still struggle with the day-to-day, still wish we could just go back to the way things were. Before.
But we can't. And some journeys are a little more grey than others. But at least we get to take them together.
Your turn: How do you turn sadness into something brighter?
Carmi I'm so sorry to hear of your family's loss, I've been grieving my sisters sudden passing on this end and your question had me thinking... how have I coped this past month and a half? How have I managed to laugh and enjoy all which I have yet grieve at the same time? I believe to turn sadness into something brighter I try to find the gratitude in any given situation. My sisters sudden passing? I had a wonderful lady in my life all of my life; we loved, laughed, played, carried on, fought and learned together and I will always treasure the times we spent together or the absences which strengthened the bond we shared. I smile when I think of things we never told our Mother until we were well into adulthood, but in our defense... girls will be girls and there was four of us!
ReplyDeleteA thought provoking question once again Carmi; I love visiting your blog, you get me thinking! (now does the semi-colon belong there or should that be a period and beginning of a new sentence? ;-)
Cheers.
Hi Carmi, this is a good question and theme.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry for your loss but it is a time that may develope stronger family bonds too.
I was thinking about grief and the kind of loss that isn't physical but the deep ache inside as I watch several dear friends dying mentally and emotionally while their bodies keep plugging along.
It is so hard to see the minds not remember simple things and their emotions getting so far out of whack. That is Death too.
I just have to keep loving them no matter what.