Laughter Opens the Door to Joy

Laughter Opens the Door

And Joy Comes Inside

“Don’t be concerned about being disloyal to your pain

by being joyous.” ~ Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

The first time it happened, I was confused—a stranger in an unknown land. I stepped off the plane of sorrow and into a foreign place, one where I didn’t know the language and was unfamiliar with the customs. But I knew that language at one time in my past. I had practiced that custom—often.

Where had I journeyed? Into the land of laughter, into the presence of joy.

Four weeks of soul-deadening grief had stripped my defenses bare. My husband, my fourteen-year-old daughter, and I mourned with unceasing tears the death of our child, the death of her sister. It was fitting that even in South Florida, those November and December pre-solstice days were dark, not only in our psyches, but also in the days that had so little sunlight. That lack of light mirrored how we felt as we trudged through the short days and longer nights that signal the most profound grief.

Nowhere was laughter present. Nowhere did joy show its face . . . until one evening at the dinner table. My daughter Vee said or did something zany and laughter seized the three of us. It grabbed us by the collars and refused to let go until its joyous peals rang through the house and echoed from the walls that had been painted with sorrow.

Laughter erupted from deep within each of us, released from that which had bound it for weeks.

Tears of mirth trickled down our cheeks, our noses ran, and we shook with glee. When my laughter faded, it struck me that it was the first time I had experienced joy since Alexa died. I felt no guilt. Never before or since have I been so aware of laughter—so aware of joy.

I welcomed the joy as I might a new friend into my life. My grief wasn’t over; it never will be over, but that laughter opened the door and let joy return to my life.

Often, after profound loss, we take on the cloak of grief as if it’s our new responsibility to wear it for the rest of our lives. We fear that if our sorrow leaves, our love for the one we lost also will leave.

Joy cannot and will not diminish the love we have for those we now grieve. Our pain and loss are not nullified when we once again seek, find, and welcome joy into our lives.

The joy that returns is the same joy that our loved ones brought to us during their lives—or we wouldn’t grieve them. It is the same joy that leads us to live meaningful lives in spite of loss—and sometimes even because of loss.

Laughter and joy bring light and even more love into our lives, and for that we should never grieve, but rather be grateful. Laughter and joy are the healing balm that mends our hearts.

In this holiday season and every season, remember to open yourself to joy, to open yourself to laughter, and to open yourself to love.

Vigils—A Path Out of Darkness

Vigil

A Path Out of Darkness

Days Pass By in What Once

Was a Long, Sad Month

October 16, 2014

October once was my longest, saddest month. During October, I am writing about the challenges we face during anniversary days, weeks, and months that mark extreme loss—or any intense, emotional life events. My child spent her last days on Earth in October of 1986. Memories of that time have affected not only October, but much of life since my seven-year-old Alexa died. Today, I share how we honor the memory of those we’ve lost during vigils.

Extending the olive branch of peace and healing.
(Stained glass window in Gracepoint Church, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida)

Candlelight flickers in a dark room, in a sanctuary, on a street corner, in groups gathered with a common purpose—to remember, to watch, to wait, to sit in silence and awareness. Warmth from the flames provides only scant heat to loosen the sometimes-icy grip of grief on the hearts of those who meet to remember.

Light, precious light, illuminates each event to ward away the darkness that can overwhelm when life’s events are too much to bear. Vigils are times of gathering in the light and provide the gift of being in community with like-hearted people. People share the same depths of the soul at the vigils they attend.

We have vigils because when marking times of sadness, loss, and grief, we don’t want to be alone. We hunger for the company of those who understand and welcome those who wish to be understood. Loneliness can weight the emotions of loss and make them too heavy to bear. Emotions immediately following loss often spur people to act. What can they do? How can they process the event? They gather at a designated time and place memorials, light candles, stand in solemn prayer. Such gatherings do not change the nature of life’s unhappy events, but they often answer the question: “What can I do?” Meeting with others can be the beginning of healthy mourning.

Fear of forgetting loved ones can haunt those of us left behind. We know time will pass, life will change, and the face of our loss will change. But some things we don’t want to change. We don’t want to forget. We’re afraid that in forgetting, we stop loving. Vigils give us an opportunity to say publicly, “Yes, I remember. Yes, I still love.”

Annual vigils, not unlike pilgrimages, give us an opportunity to hold each other up. In the community of a vigil, stories can be shared. Hope can be shared. Healing can be shared. Guilt can be soothed. Frustration and a sense of failure can be diminished.

Following a vigil, rather than being overwhelmed by sadness, participants often remember not only what they lost, but what they loved. That love continues to hold them long after the last candle is extinguished, the lights have come on, and everyone goes home. It’s the light of love that carries us through that journey and the journey we take each day—a new journey, a different journey, but one of hope and healing after loss.

♥ ♥ ♥ 

My dear friends Chris and Darrell Smethie lost their beautiful son Courtland almost three years ago. Saturday evening, October 18, they are hosting a NOPE (Narcotics Overdoes Prevention and Education) vigil in Ft. Lauderdale to honor the memory of those lost to and suffering from substance abuse. Please join us and bring light and healing to your own life and the lives of others who struggle with this problem. NOPE vigils are held throughout the country this month.

Information regarding the NOPE Candlelight vigil in Ft. Lauderdale follows:

October 18, 2014, Reception 6:30 p.m., Ceremony 7:00 p.m.

Gracepoint Church

5590 NE 6^th Avenue

Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

Contact Chris Smethie: chrisstruther@hotmail.com

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Vigils need not be public. Nor do they need to be held on a certain day. Anyone can light a candle when life seems too dark. Anyone can contribute to or volunteer for organizations that help bring light to the world: Compassionate Friends, Children’s Miracle Network, St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Such organizations abound and can help us find our way out of the dark by bringing light to those still here.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Loss will touch each of us. That touch can sear our souls. As a healing balm, I present a new October. Rather than become snared in the dread of loss, I intend to spin a circle of compassion. I loved Alexa. I lost her. What did I love that made the loss so keen? What do I do, and what will I do to keep from stumbling—through October and every day, week, month? By sharing my journey, I hope to make yours easier, to offer a hand when you stumble, to keep you from falling. If you fall, I want my hand to be there to help you up and back into life.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Do you have a “long, sad, month” or do you know of someone who is stuck in the depths of grief? Please feel free to share your concerns, struggles, victories in the comments. I welcome private correspondence at mysistersgarden@gmail.com.

Once Upon a Long, Sad Month

Once Upon a Long, Sad Month

October 1, 2014

October once was my longest, saddest month. Child Cancer Month—September—ended yesterday. Families who have lost a child to cancer don’t walk away at the end of any month. Their awareness does not shift to another disease or cause. Throughout September, I read about children fighting cancer, those who are winning, and those who lost. Photos revealing the ravages of the disease haunted me. Photos of those mourning the loss of a child to cancer resonated with me. Photos of children smiling in spite of their near-Sysyphean challenge gave me—give me—heart, because each one reminds me why this illness cuts so deep and stings to the quick of our souls. Children—their smiles, their innocence, playfulness, bright spirits, and hope for and dreams of the future—reflect everything we hold dear about children.

However, for those navigating the alien paths of child cancer, the tremendous challenges they face anchor them in the present. The future is too uncertain. Their razor focus is on the daily realities of living with, treating, and managing the illness. Advances in treatment mean that day-to-day reality of child cancer sometimes ends. Children go into remission and many are healed.

Other families and their children aren’t as fortunate; remission and healing are elusive and a child dies. They then are faced with navigating the alien path of how to live after child loss.

Not just during Child Cancer Month, but every month, I navigate that path over which I began stumbling on November 2, 1986, when my seven-year-old daughter Alexa died.

I still fall often, but not as much as in the early days, weeks, months. I’ve devised ways to plant my feet in a more secure stance. I look ahead before stepping. I also have devised ways to pick myself up when I fall. I don’t stay down as long as I once did.

One stumbling area that kept me down—keeps me down—too long is October—the anniversary month. I say month rather than day because the worst grief is not always on the anniversary of the death. For many, the days, weeks, and, for me, the month preceding are fraught with emotional and psychic peril. On this day, we were at Shands Hospital. On this day, Alexa had her last chemo. On this day, she made beautiful cards for a friend’s new baby. On this day, I hid from trick-or-treaters. On this day, our dear pediatrician said . . .

The first year, October smacked me in the face. I crept through it, the memories of that last month hobbled me. As more years passed, a vague sense of unease washed over me during October as I remembered where we were and what we did “on this day…”

Hardest were the Octobers I lived in the northeast away from my home state of Florida. September’s killing frost decimated my garden. October days meant trees barren of leaves and often-gray skies. Less light, less sun let the cold seep into my bones, reminding me of a deeper chill from that 1986 October. In an odd twist, and a blessing, by November 2, I often was not crushed and broken as I was in the preceding days. I had survived another year of loss.

It’s not always the anniversary that hurts deepest. Often, the days preceding an anniversary cut the most. Because of that, I want to further my own healing during these October days. In the process, I hope to further the healing of others—not only those who have lost a child or loved one from any cause, but also those who have lost a sibling, mother, father, friend, spouse—anyone they loved.

Loss will touch each of us. That touch can sear our souls. As a healing balm, I present a new October. Each day, rather than become snared in the dread of loss, I intend to spin a circle of celebration. I loved Alexa. I lost her. What did I love that made the loss so keen? What do I do, and what will I do to keep from stumbling—through October and every day, week, month? By sharing my journey through October, I hope to make your journey easier, to offer a hand when you stumble, to keep you from falling. If you fall, I want my hand to be there to help you up and back into life.

* * * * * * *

Do you have a “long, sad, month”? Please feel free to share your concerns, struggles, victories in the comments. I welcome private correspondence at mysistersgarden@gmail.com.