Saturday, October 19, 2019

For those who grieve, loving you to the moon and back!

Between Monday and Thursday of this week I lost three patients, even in hospice this is a lot for one person's census.  On Thursday morning our state was recovering from a pretty major wind/rain storm. Many lost power and there was substantial flooding. To top it all off Ed is half way around the world and it is only the half way point to his return.

I shared with my daughter Heather, who was home with her kids due to the storm that it is most definitely a rainbow shirt day. I have a shirt with small rainbows on it that is my 'go to' shirt when I'm feeling down. 

Rainbows are not a cure-all; they can't bring people back to life, stop someone from dying and they can't change the weather. 

What rainbows can do is remind you that something beautiful can be left behind in the wake of a storm; literal or figurative!

I have suffered greatly throughout my life in many a storm, as I know most of you reading this have. 

For me, a rainbow is love!

In my faith tradition it is a gift form the Divine and a promise of continued love.

This rainbow was extra special because of the moon; the moon that was right smack dab in the center of my  rainbow as I began a new day was the same moon in the sky watching over Ed as he slept. Both Ed and I were born on full moons and we spoke for the first time on a full moon, a blue moon at that, which is a rare second full moon in the same month, and it was a Paschal moon; which is the full moon just before Easter! Ed always tells me he loves me to the moon and back....and at an incredibly sad and lonely moment I was gifted with the absolute vision of


Love you to the moon and back.....



There in no distance love can't reach!


There is no border love can't cross, including the separation that death leaves behind. 

Rainbows make me smile and bring me joy. Many friends and family have gifted me with rainbows, for which I am most grateful! At the same moment I was taking this photo, I received a loving message from a new friend who was grieving the loss of her mom (a bird lover just like me) and a glorious bird flew right through my lens as I snapped the photo with the rainbow heading toward the moon! Throughout the rest of the day every time I started to feel down, just like magic, I'd turn my head and there was another rainbow supplying me with much needed love to help me along my journey! I shared this rainbow love with a patient who was down herself in the form of a rainbow manicure and she smiled, which for her, is physically and emotionally a challenge.



Love is real and it is eternal, look for it and it will surprise you every time. On a cloudy day out of the shadows there is love and it prevails!

Todays prayer is for all who grieve; the loss of someone to death, separation because of addiction, because of travel, because of fear; that you find joy in some small way and that it grows like a seed of love planted in your heart to promote healing. 

SOS began as a gift of love to break down barriers and deepen our connection to one another through love and compassion for our individual journeys and that is exactly what it does, one rainbow at a time!

Peace, love, compassion and rainbows be with you today and always!!!

Loving all of you.....to the moon and back!!!

k




Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Celebrating Ben's day of birth to the physical life 31 years later

Today is Ben's birthday. 31 years ago his parents welcomed their first born child into the world with innumerable hopes and dreams. I can imagine as most, presumably all of you reading this can, no one dreams of an untimely death of their child for any reason.

I don't want to talk about death, I want to celebrate life!

Bringing something to birth is starting a new life; this is true in any seed, literal or figurative that is planted.

Each and every day can be a day of birth, birth into a new way of living.

I've said it before and I will say it again and again till my physical time on this earth ends and I return to the divine energy from which I came as I believe we all do; our community of people facing addiction has come so far in the years since I was cast into it and I pray this growth will continue.

We no longer have to live in the shadows.

There is less and less shame in naming the disease.

We are accepted as people who face something terrible and terrifying on a daily basis.

Happy birthday to Ben and to you and to me and to us all, may today be a day of remembrance of our birth into life, our birth into recovery, our birth into forgiveness and our birth into acceptance.

Here's the wonderful thing about a birthday, it never stops. If something goes wrong or a relapse occurs or someone leaves the physical life as we know it, your birthday is your birthday and no one and nothing can take that away.

Buy a cake, eat a cookie or an ice-cream sundae and sing to you, your beautiful self for everyday is a celebration of all that is and always will be you!!!!!

Today's pic Kim put together to share Ben's love of the NY Giants with Cam & Lin..... for those of us Giants lovers out there, chin up every game and every season is also a chance at a new beginning! Go Giants!



May the peace that is born in the loving connections we have with each other wash over you today and always!

Safe travels with love
k