In the last chapter of my book, From The Heart Of An Abandoned Daughter, I ended with a section on relationships. In the “About the Author” I mentioned that I had married my best friend. I want to continue my story from where I left off, with a reflection on the importance of relationships in our lives relative to our struggle for wholeness and well-being. This will include my experience meeting and being loved by the person who became an integral part of my healing—something I did not go into in my book—for many reasons.
Devastated by his death, and walking through the darkness of those first five years of widowhood became a story of transition that I have longed to share—along with the subsequent years of personal transformation. This is because these years of living into the wisdom of acceptance and gratitude for what happened hold a story I hope will be read by singles and couples—as well as those who have tread the path of loss and grief.
I would like to challenge us to:
- Look at life in the context of death (“Knowing I shall die, how then shall I live?” – Steven Levine)
- Identify ways to live consciously and mindfully, knowing that our lives, while transitory, do matter within the context of each moment.
- Become aware of how we live relationally
- Become more familiar with death as we navigate our daily losses, small and large