“Only once in your life, I truly believe, you find someone who can completely turn your world around. You tell them things that you’ve never shared with another soul and they absorb everything you say and actually want to hear more. You share hopes for the future, dreams that will never come true, goals that were never achieved and the many disappointments life has thrown at you. When something wonderful happens, you can’t wait to tell them about it, knowing they will share in your excitement. They are not embarrassed to cry with you when you are hurting or laugh with you when you make a fool of yourself. Never do they hurt your feelings or make you feel like you are not good enough, but rather they build you up and show you the things about yourself that make you special and even beautiful. There is never any pressure, jealousy or competition but only a quiet calmness when they are around. You can be yourself and not worry about what they will think of you because they love you for who you are. The things that seem insignificant to most people such as a note, song or walk become invaluable treasures kept safe in your heart to cherish forever. Memories of your childhood come back and are so clear and vivid it’s like being young again. Colours seem brighter and more brilliant. Laughter seems part of daily life where before it was infrequent or didn’t exist at all. A phone call or two during the day helps to get you through a long day’s work and always brings a smile to your face. In their presence, there’s no need for continuous conversation, but you find you’re quite content in just having them nearby. Things that never interested you before become fascinating because you know they are important to this person who is so special to you. You think of this person on every occasion and in everything you do. Simple things bring them to mind like a pale blue sky, gentle wind or even a storm cloud on the horizon. You open your heart knowing that there’s a chance it may be broken one day and in opening your heart, you experience a love and joy that you never dreamed possible. You find that being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure that’s so real it scares you. You find strength in knowing you have a true friend and possibly a soul mate who will remain loyal to the end. Life seems completely different, exciting and worthwhile. Your only hope and security is in knowing that they are a part of your life.”

I wanted to feel less.
To not be burdened by emotion,
To not feel sadness,
To not know loss.
I envied the inanimate,
The trees that stand proudly in winter,
Not missing their leaves.
I wanted to be weightless,
To not experience limitation.
I didn’t want time to pass,
The blur of days, months, years.
It moved too quickly,
I wanted to grasp on,
Hold it.
It eluded me,
Intangible,
Like light.
I wanted to preserve life before you were gone.
I didn’t want to know grief.

But the pain kept me connected.
It meant that I loved you,
It meant that I would always be a little broken,
It meant that our love filled all of the empty spaces.
It meant that you would be with me… forever

~Jacqueline Simon Gunn

“I have lived in the shadow of loss—the kind of loss that can paralyze you forever.
I have grieved like a professional mourner—in every waking moment, draining every ounce of my life force.
I died—without leaving my body.
But I came back, and now it’s your turn.
I have learned to remember my past—without living in it.
I am strong, electric, and alive, because I chose to dance, to laugh, to love, and to
live again.
I have learned that you can’t re-create the life you once had—you have to
reinvent a life for yourself.
And that reinvention is a gift, not a curse.
I believe your future self is a work of art and that science can help you create it. If you’re lost . . . if you’re gone . . . if you can barely absorb the words on this
page . . . I want you to hold this truth in your heart: when it’s your time to go, you won’t wish you had spent more time grieving; you’ll wish you had spent more time living.
That’s why I’m here. And why you are, too. Let’s live like our lives depend on it.”

~ Christina Rasmussen

“Grief is subversive, undermining the quiet agreement to behave and be in control of our emotions. It is an act of protest that declares our refusal to live numb and small. There is something feral about grief, something essentially outside the ordained and sanctioned behaviors of our culture. Because of that, grief is necessary to the vitality of the soul. Contrary to our fears, grief is suffused with life-force…. It is not a state of deadness or emotional flatness. Grief is alive, wild, untamed and cannot be domesticated. It resists the demands to remain passive and still. We move in jangled, unsettled, and riotous ways when grief takes hold of us. It is truly an emotion that rises from the soul.”

~Frances Weller

Perhaps some day the sun will shine again,
And I shall see that still the skies are blue,
And feel one more I do not live in vain,
Although bereft of you.

Perhaps the golden meadows at my feet,
Will make the sunny hours of spring seem gay,
And I shall find the white May-blossoms sweet,
Though You have passed away.

Perhaps the summer woods will shimmer bright,
And crimson roses once again be fair,
And autumn harvest fields a rich delight,
Although You are not there.

But though kind Time may many joys renew,
There is one greatest joy I shall not know
Again, because my heart for loss of You
Was broken, long ago.”

~Vera Brittain

For those of us who have ever walked through the Valley of the death of a loved one, we may feel after the first few months, that we can begin to move on with our feelings and emotions. However, we soon find ourselves grieving as we did before because the feelings are still present in our lives.

Often times, Family and Friends assume that a grieving person is moving on with their lives and putting everything in the past. No one can even begin to gauge how another person is feeling. Our Grief Journey is our own personal journey and everyone grieves differently.

Understanding our own Grief will also be beneficial as to the types of help we allow Family, Friends and our counselors to provide for us.
They don’t know how we are feeling until we open up and tell them.
There will be days we don’t feel like talking on the telephone and shouldn’t feel guilty because it is normal.

It is a good idea to journal our thoughts and feelings. This is a great way to track our progress. The grief journey is not an easy one, but it is one that we all must go through at some point in our lives and when we continue to have faith that we will be fine and God will provide comfort, healing, and support as we walk down our dark path of grief.

​

Stephen William Hawking. 1942 – 2018
 Cosmologist, space traveler and hero

A man with one of the greatest minds ever, has left this earth, but left behind a Phenomenal Legacy that will live on for many years to come.

Stephen Hawking is the former Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and author of  A Brief History of Time which was an international bestseller. Now the Dennis Stanton Avery and Sally Tsui Wong-Avery Director of Research at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and Founder of the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at Cambridge, his other books for the general reader include: A Brief History of Time, the essay collection Black Holes and Baby Universe and The Universe in a Nutshell.

In 1963, Hawking contracted motor neurone disease and was given two years to live. Yet he went on to Cambridge to become a brilliant researcher and Professorial Fellow at Gonville and Caius University. From 1979 to 2009 he held the post of Lucasian Professor at Cambridge, the chair held by Isaac Newton in 1663. Professor Hawking has over a dozen honorary degrees and was awarded the CBE in 1982 and the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1985. He was a fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the US National Academy of Science. The US space agency tweeted: “Remembering Stephen …. He is a fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the US National Academy of Science. Stephen Hawking is regarded as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists since Einstein. 

It doesn’t matter if you agreed with his theories or disagreed; one thing is for sure.  The world have certainly lost a Great man with a Brilliant Mind, but the legacy of Stephen William Hawking will live on for many, many years!

When we sincerely mean the words we pray, God has forgiven every sin we have ever committed and will commit. There is something that we all must remember if we start to condemn ourselves. If we have surrendered control of our lives to God, our-day-to day life will become different.

Everyone is a sinner. And the penalty for sin is death, eternal death, separation from God. God sent Jesus to die to pay the penalty for our sins so that we don’t have to. In all of these things, we must continue to trust in Him, believe in him and talk to him. When we start feeling down, depressed, anxious, and guilty and/or empty inside, we should ask God to come into our lives, and give us the strength to make it through this difficult time.

God, I am a sinner in need of Your forgiveness. Thank you for sending Jesus to pay for my sin and raising Him from the dead to overcome the power of sin and death. Without him doing so, there’s no way I could be forgiven or get over the guilt I feel. I receive Your gift of salvation and I know with all of my heart, soul, and mind, you are good, loving & faithful, God. I choose to entrust my life to You. Come into my life, and give me the strength, love, courage, understanding, wisdom, humbleness, & patience to make it through today, tomorrow & always!