We miss him. This week marks the beginning of another school year and yet another milestone without Mack. We miss him to our very core. But our daughter continues to be such an amazing young woman. We rejoice in all that she does and the year ahead for her.
Elizabeth shared this earlier.
I’m really pleased to share that my first essay for Open To Hope, “Another New School Year Begins,” was posted on their site earlier today. Open To Hope is the kind of resource that you don’t know exists until you need it. After Mack died, I began to read every book on grief I could find and look for help, guidance, and community from those who have held up a lantern to light the path ahead of me.
I came across Open to Hope last year, signed up for their e-newsletters, and visit the site weekly. It is a non-profit organization that describes its mission as “helping people find hope after loss” and they have a variety of articles, podcasts, and Grief TV updated regularly that I have found to be very practical and nurturing at the same time.
In my reading about those who have learned to live in the gap, and FYI I just made that up to try to get away from over-using the word tension, which is to say the life of here and there. Those who have successfully navigated the journey of grief all point to the “sacredness of the moment,” this moment.
The future is not yet ours; perhaps it never will be. If it comes, it may come wholly different from what we have foreseen. Let us shut our eyes, then, to that which God hides from us, and keeps in reserve in the treasures of His deep counsels. Let us worship without seeing; let us be silent; let us abide in peace.
— François Fénelon (1651-1715)