The Christmas tree is assembled and the lights aglow. The ornament boxes are placed in the living room and I wait with expectancy to open, unwrap and hang them in just the right place. It’s their one month of glory each year, and it’s my brief walk down memory lane past the years of experiences we choose to remember.
For starters, I unwrap the gold metal nativity with the date of our first year of marriage engraved upon it. Memories of our young first-of-everything days together flood through my mind as I gently hang it in the center of the tree. Next, the wooden woman in the shoe with all her children surrounding her. I can still see my friends and co-workers giving me this ornament many years ago because they were keenly aware of my dream to become a mother. Then, the Florida lighthouse goes on a prominent branch in memory of a reunion with my sisters and birth mother. Next is a beautiful winter-scene bulb from our fall trip to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and a very special visit with the sister I grew up with, and her family. I placed various dough ornaments from trips we’d made to New York and Washington, D.C., along with the shell doll from Hawaii. There is even the cookie ornament shaped like a gingerbread with my daughter’s teeth marks in the “frosting.” I laugh to myself as I picture my grandchildren chuckling about what their mommy did as a two-year-old.
As I pull the cabin ornament from its tissue wrap, my breath catches a bit as I read the back where I’d dated the trip my teenage daughters and I took with our dear, grandfatherly friend. This was the ornament he’d bought us on top of Mount Lemmon on one of his last trips there. Delight mixed with sadness as we spent the day with him in one of his favorite places. I picture the moment he handed it to me after “secretly” purchasing it in the gift shop. He knew he was dying of a fatal disease, and even then, I knew he didn’t want us to forget him and that special day we’d spent together.
There was a day when the cabin ornament wouldn’t have come out. It would have been too painful. I wouldn’t want to face it and it would have stayed wrapped and hidden. But the powerful Grief Recovery Method has done wonders for my appreciation of fond, and sometimes painful, memories. I can fully embrace the memories and feel warm to bask in moments past.
How about you? Do you have memories that are too difficult to face right now? The pain is too unbearable? Let us be a heart with ears for you. If you’ll take the next steps, one at a time, there will be a day in your near future when those memories won’t have such power over you. You can move beyond loss and even embrace some memories.
Don’t let grief rob you. We’re here to help. Contact us today! 520-668-5906
Kim Worcester
Grief Recovery Specialist
The Grief & Wellness Group
kim.worcester@gmail.com
Kim has walked through the separation from her birth family for seventeen years of her childhood and the loss of innocence that abuse brings. With her B.A in Communications and a huge heart for those who are hurting, Kim has a desire to help guide others to move beyond loss to grief recovery.
Grief Recovery Specialist
The Grief & Wellness Group
kim.worcester@gmail.com
Kim has walked through the separation from her birth family for seventeen years of her childhood and the loss of innocence that abuse brings. With her B.A in Communications and a huge heart for those who are hurting, Kim has a desire to help guide others to move beyond loss to grief recovery.
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