If you read this and other blogs you will know that we lost a daughter 3 months ago today. Travelling since that time has been hard, difficult and slow going and there are days when we feel like we’re not moving forward at all and other days when we almost feel normal, but not quite. What is ‘normal’ anyway?
I’ve had several people tell me we should read “The Shack” and when I first heard what it was about briefly I felt that I did not want to read it at all. Too close to home. But as more and more people began to say we really should read it and that there so many parallels with what we’ve been going through I began to think perhaps I really did want to read it. Our daughters gave it to me for Christmas and my head has been buried in it since Boxing Day (yesterday). I’m more than 3/4 through it and already have seen/felt the healing that is inside this book. And such truths too.
So far the thing I’ve gotten out of it the most is that God doesn’t cause tragedies to happen, and whilst He doesn’t prevent them either, He does use them to work ‘incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies’. It’s early days for us yet but I do know that when suitable time has passed that God will help Graham and I to grow out of this suffering and that we may end up helping others either directly or indirectly because of our ability to share and love others.
I’ll probably report more after I’ve finished reading it but just felt led to share this one powerful thing I have learnt from it. I hope that Graham will read it too - it’s a powerful book.
After years of having a pine tree Graham thought it would be nice to get one of those fibre optic trees which light up of its own. We hunted all over the local shopping centre and he checked in town as well but we just couldn’t find what we were looking for.
Then yesterday, on the way home from our youngest daughter’s we saw a Christmas shop so decided to drop in, on the offchance.
What a magical shop that is! So full of the most amazing things, Christmas lights, roof decorations, normal decorations, miniature models and so many other things. And the fibre optic trees we were looking for. The one we liked is a 7ft bauble tree and we had to buy the display model as it was the last one there.
The year started out well for us, we all had our goals and managed to achieve most of the things we wanted to do. Graham is enjoying his work, I’m loving mine and completed a new book. Mel and Ryan are enjoying married life and Melanie now works at home making bridal and formal wear, which has been a life passion for her. Meredith has completed uni and is enjoying an overseas trip before starting a new job in the new year. Miriam had a great job and was living with friends not far from the city. Christine completed the teaching at Box Hill that she came home for and is making plans to move back up to the country to work with horses in the new year and Angela and Ben are busy working on their home and looking after their menagerie of animals: a snake, 2 dragons, 2 rats, cat, and pig.
But at the end of September our happy lifestyle was rocked to the core when we lost our darling, beautiful Miriam and Graham and I struggled to make sense of it all. It should have been a wedding and not a funeral. And we’ve been limping along ever since.
Christmas will be very different this year and so we’re relocating to our youngest daughter’s home for the main meal and time together as a family.
We’ve received lots of Christmas cards from people everywhere - family, friends, colleagues, but I just don’t have what is needed to write out cards and happy wishes to everyone. I hope you can all forgive me. We love you all but just can’t bring ourselves to sit down and write card after card, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas when feeling merry ourselves feels somewhat distant. I’m hoping we do have a nice family day but I expect it will have tears accompanying the smiles as we reminisce and share our thoughts and love with one another.
And so, my message here is to you all. Make sure you spend time with your loved ones as you never know when they might be snatched away from you. It’s not a thought anyone wants to have but the reality is it does happen. So savour every moment and don’t let anger or annoyance drag on. Get over it and get back into loving that person and enjoying life.
In the meantime, if you’d like to see some messages about Christmas, as I have been blogging about what happens here in Melbourne, why not visit MuchAboutMelbourne?
I’ve had several people tell me we should read “The Shack” and when I first heard what it was about briefly I felt that I did not want to read it at all. Too close to home. But as more and more people began to say we really should read it and that there so many parallels with what we’ve been going through I began to think perhaps I really did want to read it. Our daughters gave it to me for Christmas and my head has been buried in it since Boxing Day (yesterday). I’m more than 3/4 through it and already have seen/felt the healing that is inside this book. And such truths too.
We’ve received lots of Christmas cards from people everywhere - family, friends, colleagues, but I just don’t have what is needed to write out cards and happy wishes to everyone. I hope you can all forgive me. We love you all but just can’t bring ourselves to sit down and write card after card, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas when feeling merry ourselves feels somewhat distant. I’m hoping we do have a nice family day but I expect it will have tears accompanying the smiles as we reminisce and share our thoughts and love with one another.