Moments with Mary

  Mine Eyes have seen Glory!   This coming week is All Hallow’s Eve and All Saints Day and All Souls Day where many Cultures and Christians celebrate the Dead.  Some people find it very strange that we continue to make a connection with those who have gone before us.  But the truth of the matter is that all who have died are always with us and within us.  Some of our beloved remain forever in our DNA, some are actively and reverently in our memories.  All those we love and remember remain forever in our hearts.  As long as our heart beats…their love pulses through us.  Why?  Because their eyes have seen the Glory of the Lord, who made it possible for all of us to have eternal life.  They live forever because of God’s love for us.  We see the glory of God too - just look up into the heavens and enclose yourself in its beauty! What a glorious God! “The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” ...

W-H-Y???  We often ask that three letter word question and can’t get an answer that makes sense to us or get the answer we are looking for.  When we’re grieving…whether from death, divorce, injustice or loss of something precious to us – our human instinct is to completely understand what is happening to us.  We think getting the answer to the WHY will bring some sense of knowing and that getting the answer can bring a sense of peace.  But when someone or something hurts us or a violent act is committed or an accident occurs or a sickness overtakes a loved one – in reality…will getting the answer change the outcome?  In Scripture, there are 510 WHY questions – most of them questioning God.  I found something interesting in Scripture that is comforting.  Instead of asking WHY to those questions inside of us, can we change the question to what we need to do to bring peace to any question from within: Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed withi...

 Moody Blues Grief harvests within us a variety of moods.  One minute we can feel upbeat and the next minute, we spiral downward into darkness. We wonder if we’re ever going to be even keel again.  Will we ever feel “normal” again?  This up and down and inside and out is driving me crazy.  Someone can say one word and it’s taken out context for its intended meaning.  I hear a line on TV and suddenly, it feels like the wind was kicked out of me.  Why is grieving so difficult that I can feel one way one minute -- and in a slick moment of time, that feeling completely changes.  It’s so tiring…so very exhausting.  I’m so out of sorts.  I’m so cloudy.   Hang in there.  No matter what mood you are in…God is there because God cares.  No matter how cloudy it is…God is there because God cares.  Just like any cloudy day, behind all the clouds and dark moods, there is always a bright sky blue. "Cast all your anxieties upon ...

 Frozen Inside Grief Grief can sometimes feel like you’re trapped inside an ice cube waiting for the intensity of temperature to change so you can be yourself again.  Is that really possible?  No.  You will never be the same again.  Truly, you should not or ever even want to be the same again.  Why?  Because grief changes you in so many ways.   You are now stronger, greater, deeper, wiser and more vulnerable.  Why?  Because you have become, not harder, like ice, but softer, more transparent, more real.  Grief allows you to see more clearly how precious life truly is.  You will also see more clearly what is really important in your life and you will make changes in your thought processes that prioritize that importance.  Just like God produces ice, God is the source that helps you melt away the pain.  It's a gradual process, but you will melt into a new you.  A blessed you.  A beautiful you that will mak...

Guilt is a Many Splintered Thing... Guilt is a powerful emotion that can delay the grief process and makes you feel prickly inside.  Guilt can invade your sense of peace and splinter into negative thoughts.   Perhaps guilt came from something you did or something you didn’t do, or from a decision you made on behalf of your loved one that continues to plague you.  Guilt keeps you trapped inside the “what ifs” in life.   Every decision we make is based upon the information we have at any given time.  That movement forward in time can change how we think about something because time gives us more perspective, more information, or a greater awareness or realization of what we did or didn’t do.  Guilt can be a positive emotion because it allows us to think about our actions and teaches us how to do something differently the next time.   Guilt can also be negative because we can get stuck in it and our guilt keeps us from forgiving ourselves a...