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| My daughter Jody |
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| My brother, mom, and me... |
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| The last photo taken of Jody |
I've learned that life is fragile, often messy,
unpredictable, and gut-wrenchingly hard at times...
I've also learned that no matter what life brings,
it's up to me what I do with my pain, hurt, loss...
I can choose to see the glass as half-empty or half-full...
I can feel victimized by my circumstances or find the gifts...
I can find the courage to look pain fully in the face or run from it...
I can look for something to fill in the missing pieces of my heart
so that I won't have to feel the emotional insecurity that comes from
losing so much family, especially a child... or build a strong foundation
within myself so that I feel at peace with the emptiness...
This month marks ten years since my daughter Jody, died...
I'm always reminded, especially around the holidays,
that my parents, my brother, and my grandparents are gone too...
What I know to be true about loss is that pain heals, life goes on,
and in-between the sorrow, joy continues to be woven into the threads of life...
