My mother died at the end of 2019 and I wrote this piece but never published it. This morning, I thought about the people who may be scared to say they are happy about someone passing. Scared to acknowledge the relief they feel. This is for them. My mom died and I am happy. I could justify this statement by telling you facts such as this: She didn’t want to live anymore. She missed my dad. She wanted to go. She wasn’t in pain at the end and she died in her sleep. I could tell

I am rewiring my brain. I am actively adding images to some of my memories to reflect my self love and my healing. One of my first memories of my mom’s reactions to gifts, was when I was five or six, running through the kitchen. I had a little route, from the living room, through the kitchen, toward the front door and into the living room again. Someone had taken me to the store to buy a gift for Mother’s Day or her birthday. I didn’t really understand what the tiny funny fig

Don’t you know yet? It is your light that lights the worlds. - Rumi Deep inside of you is a light. You were born with this light. It is pure, clear and true. It is who you are. Someone or “more than one” may have tried to dim or snuff out your light a long time ago or even recently, but it remains at your core, ready to light up your life. This light is your inner spirit. It is the essence of you. It is this amazing part of you that is resilient, strong, beautiful and loving.

Sometimes life just ups and punches you right in the gut. And then as your body automatically jerks forward, with an oomph that lets much-needed air out of your lungs and you struggle to get a breath, life comes down hard on the back of your head and this time, you fall forward all the way to the ground. You take more than a few seconds to raise your shoulders, wincing as you push down on your scraped palms, and as you painfully raise your head, life slaps you across the face