Grief is funny.

Well, not really funny, but it is amazing how it can sneak up on you just when you are least expecting it. I have said it before and I will keep saying it – grief is hard.

Really hard.

I don’t expect anyone who has suffered any kind of loss to not understand what I mean. We all experience it differently and loss is loss. Whether it is a parent, a sibling, a spouse, a beloved pet, a job loss or loss of a friendship — grief is real and often difficult to predict when it is going to appear.

Pow.

Just like that it can show up and take a place at your table.

I was working in our Connestee library this past week and a woman came in looking for large print books for her 92 year old mother. I happily showed her our bookcase full of selections and tried to give her some assistance. She told me her mom wouldn’t use her iPad to read and I made some suggestions of audio books, etc. As I left the library I got all sad and melancholy and it was because this woman who was probably my age still has her mom around. I must admit when I hear that someone still has their parents I get a little bit envious. I guess it is natural and I am truly happy for them but still….it reminds me of what I no longer have. A friend on a committee lost both of her parents in the past six weeks and that hit me hard. I can’t imagine such loss in such a short period of time. The grief has to be overwhelming.

So, as always, when I am confronted with grief I try to focus on the happy times with that loved one that I am missing and immerse myself in something that surrounds me with that person somehow. This time I looked through pictures and found this one of my mom taken at a Clergy Wives Retreat sometime in the 1980’s probably. It made me laugh.

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Apparently this pillow made the rounds on these “retreats” and my mom ended up with him at some point. It really made me giggle and I remember how much my mom loved going on those retreats with those special friends who understood what it was like to be a minister’s wife. It was her tribe before that term became popular.

So today I am thinking of my mom and her hunky pillow man and thinking “how blessed am I?” to have had the chance to remember her fondly today. So blessed. Hope today you have a blessing as well. Be well, my friends. Take time to remember those you miss.