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Six years is a long time without your best friend
I’ve been thinking a lot about friendships lately. They change and morph throughout our lifetimes. As many of you know, I started this blog after the passing of my lifelong best friend in 2018. Heather and I met in kindergarten, I literally don’t remember a time when I didn’t know her, and there are few memories throughout much of my life that she didn’t play an active role. In some ways the last six years have always felt a little strange without her – there are always those things that aren’t the same with anyone else. It was a daily struggle for me in the months after Heather died. (My words…
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This Song Reminds Me of You
My daughter recently bought a sweatshirt that says “this song reminds me of you” on the front. It was a limited edition “drop” – she set an alarm on her phone to remind her when it went on sale, it was a serious, stressful effort to make that purchase. And all I could think is “why do you want that particular over-priced shirt?” But then I started thinking about all the times a song reminds me of a specific person, place, or time in my life. For instance, when I hear “Girl on Fire” by Alicia Keys, I think of driving Zoe to my parents so we could go to…
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Trying to Remember Gratitude in the Midst of Chaos
Last week got heavy for me. As I looked back over the posts I wrote shortly after Heather’s death, it began to weigh on me again. And while I feel it is so important to make other’s more aware of suicide and its devastating impacts, I also cannot let those consequences pull me down. While my intent was to keep posting things, life got a little busy and a little subconsciously I stepped away from posting. I thought about it a lot, but didn’t do anything beyond that. The title of our blog is my life’s motto, I will try a little bit harder every day to achieve my goals.…
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Repost from 6.8.18: Trying to Help Others
As the launch of our website coincides with National Suicide Awareness Month, I felt it was important to share these posts again. They are hard for me to read because of the rawness, the realness of it all. If you are reading this it means you are loved, you are needed, YOU matter. Its been three months since Heather’s death by suicide. And as that anniversary ticked by I thought about all that has happened in my life in the last three months besides her passing. Nothing spectacular or especially noteworthy, but life has happened, daily life stuff that prior to March 5th I would have shared with Heather and she…
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Repost from 3.23.18: Trying to See the Light
I originally posted this on my Blogger site in 2018. This post is hard for me to read, but Zoe is proud of what I wrote and asked me to reshare this on our new site. Its an uncomfortable subject, but as tomorrow starts National Suicide Awareness Week, it seemed the right time to re-share this. Two and a half years ago today, on March 5th, 2018, my best friend since kindergarten, at 28 weeks pregnant, died by suicide. This is the first in a series of posts I wrote about that life altering event. A few days a week I start my work day with a writing prompt journal,…
