Photo credit: Terri Jackson
This morning I journaled about the grief I am experiencing as my eldest packs up his bedroom to move to his new apartment this weekend. He starts his first post-college job on Monday. He knows I will use his room for my new office space, so, without my asking, he packed up his soccer trophies, photos, and other childhood memorabilia into a cardboard box for storage.
I wept.
From the journal: “I feel an ache around my heart area. I recognize the feeling of grief, but it’s grief with some spaciousness around it. Not the kind of heart clenching, kick in the stomach, fetal position-inducing grief that comes with a death or other permanent loss. This is a sort of ‘floating around the edges of the heart’ kind of grief. I know it will disperse as I watch him step into his new life chapter prepared and ready to discover his purpose. I am not pushing the grief away. It’s here because I have had the great privilege of parenting this child/young man and, in this happy case, watching him move on to his next stage of life on this planet. It’s a lighter form of grief, with easily accessible gratitude giving it a gentle luminescence.”
Even as I journaled, I was (and am) deeply aware of my friends who have lost children, whose grief is unimaginable to me. With these thoughts still floating in my mind, I opened Facebook and discovered a post waiting for me by my friend Terri Jackson, who lost her son Justin eight years ago. I met Terri four years ago and have been deeply inspired by her work. Her gorgeous writing at backofthenorthwind.com has served as a source of healing and insight for many, as has her photography journey (check out the photo gallery on her site).
I encourage you to read Terri’s short piece below. The brief video will take your breath away. Thank you, Terri, for the permission to share this!
***
If you enjoyed today’s post and are not yet a subscriber, please join my Readers Circle via the sign-up box in the right margin and receive my free ebook Six Playfully Mindful Strategies to Beat Procrastination and Boost Productivity. You’ll also receive updates on my book Blooming into Mindfulness, blog posts, and photography, speaking engagement, and workshop news. Visit https://www.damselwingsphotography.com/ to sign up for special offers on my mindfulness-inspired artwork. Email is much more reliable than social media in getting information to you in a timely fashion, so subscribe to make sure you’re in the loop! (I promise not to share your address or send you spam.)
And if you know someone else who might benefit from an extra dose of calm in their lives, please spread the word! Social media likes and shares are always appreciated.
Finally, if you find typos anywhere on my site, I’d be grateful if you let me know. I hate typos! Contact me so that I can correct the error. Thank you!
