Grief
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My Last Mother’s Day
The official Mother’s Day holiday, as is celebrated in the United States, originally came through the efforts of a woman name Anna Jarvis. She conceived of the holiday following her mother’s death in 1905, as a way of honoring the sacrifices mothers made for their children. In 1908 she organized a huge Mother’s Day celebration at her church, and four years later, established the Mother’s Day International Association, designed to help promote her efforts to make Mother’s Day a national observance. It wasn’t until 1914 that President Woodrow Wilson signed a measure officially establishing the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. Anna Jarvis’ mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, died on…
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Birthdays and Memories. Life Moves Too Fast
After looking at the clock twice, and wondering where the time had gone this morning, I decided I had just enough time to squeeze in an email I’d been meaning to send all weekend regarding a project I’m about to start working on. It wasn’t going to be a short one, so I grabbed my laptop instead of using my phone, and stared at the screen for a moment, trying to pull my thoughts together. Within seconds of sitting, any thoughts towards completing the email were gone. Instead, my mind was taken away by the iCal prompt that popped on my screen. As I stared at the two day advance…
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When You’re Shocked By Your Sadness
Weeks before the end of school, and a student gets a phone call. His father has passed away. He wasn’t close to his father. He didn’t grow up with him around, and had only recently reconnected with him as an adult. “So why have I been crying so much?” he asked, as he sat in my office. “It’s not like we were close. I just didn’t expect to feel this way.” I listened as he talked. His countenance had completely changed since I last saw him in class three weeks earlier. It was obvious he wasn’t just hurting; he was lost. He even admitted he didn’t know whether he was…
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Another Sunday Morning It Was Not
It was another hectic Sunday morning! My life had been on hectic overdrive for the last two years, and getting ready for church this Sunday morning was no different. I’d just sold my house earlier that month and moved back to the side of town that took me more miles away from church, but put me at least at the halfway point to being closer to my work. I’d not yet adjusted my “gotta get out of the house earlier” timing down; having gone from being less than five miles from church, to now being over 15 miles away. I was also still dragging; a little on edge; physically exhausted…
