LOVE

The greater the love, the greater the grief.  When all that love that you have for someone you lost has no where to go and the love that you crave from that person is absent, the feeling of grief takes over. I think that healing from the grief of great love is impossible in isolation.  People who are grieving need other people. Sometimes this feels opposite of what we think we need....to be alone.  But being around friends and family can help us to feel happy sometimes or even forget about the grief even if it's just for a brief moment or two.   People who are grieving also need friends who will stick by them no matter how many times they break down and cry or feel unbelievably sad at unexpected times that are  often inexpainable.   Grief starts because of love and I think it needs love to heal.    Love from God, love from family, love from friends.  Just love.   I'm lucky to have a lot of love in my life.  Truly blessed.

As most of you know, Valentine's Day was a special day for Scott and I.  I know many people consider it a hallmark holiday and don't celebrate it at all but we did.  We never liked to go out to dinner because the restaurants were too crowded, the menus over-priced, and the service was slow.  Instead, we liked to just be together.  Sometimes we'd just have dinner at home, just the two of us and sometimes we'd just watch a movie at home together.  We would always exchange valentines -- he knew this was always my favorite part and I'm thankful that I saved all of his cards.   And of course, sometime around Valentine's Day we would celebrate this holiday of LOVE by throwing a party with friends, family, good food, good music and dancing.    There is no doubt that this Valentine's Day will be horrendously hard for me.  I will feel the absence of his love in my life creating a hole in my heart that no one else's love seems to be able to fill.  But I'm thankful, just the same, for all the Love in my life that helps to ease the loneliness and that will, hopefully, bit by bit, help to heal my grief.  

To close, I'd like to invite you all to listen to a song by Ben Rector called More Like Love.  In this upcoming month of love, let's all try to live our lives a little More like Love.  We all know that our world could use that right now.  

xoxo,

Julie

https://youtu.be/js5JIF4WzQo