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Blessed are those Who Mourn
Six years ago, on June 1, 2012, I was spending the last night of my week-long mission trip to Haiti in the courtyard area of the center where we stayed. It had been a long, productive, tiring, and blessings filled trip. I was both ready to go and wanting to stay at the same time. A lot of good work had been done. We were gathering together one last night to talk about what each team had accomplished that day throughout the village, and to pray, sing, read scripture, and rejoice over our time in the village of Neply before heading back to the States the next day. There was…
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O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!
On this day, May 21, 2005, I buried my mother. I was in Israel when she passed away in the hospital following developing a poorly treated bed sore that got infected; the poisons overtaking my mother’s already weak body. It took me three days our time (12 hours ahead) before I could get back to South Carolina. No matter how many years pass, my heart still aches, not just that she died, but also how she died; and maybe even when; the when she died. I still struggle with all of that. It interferes with my ability to move past that part of my grief. I know I’m not alone.…
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Another Mother’s Day
As I sit in a coffee house today, working on this blog post, I’ll admit it’s one I’ve struggled with writing. Today is Mother’s Day and the world is celebrating. It’s nice that we put aside one day a month to focus on our moms; but mothers should be celebrated everyday. Or at least every week. But I know that I’m not alone in having mixed emotions about today’s celebration. I have many friends who have lost their mothers. The loneliness of their absence is still raw for most. And having a month with the never-ending advertisements constantly showing the happy families of adult children surprise visiting their moms, and…
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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…
