Mindful Monday Dedicated To Karen
Many of you will be familiar with these words of Maya Angelou and today I want to dedicate them to our friend Karen Sutherland – a faithful commentator on our blogs.
Karen, I may not remember the words of every comment you have left here, but I sure do remember how they made me feel. And I know that I am not alone. Holding you in our hearts at this sad time.
🙂 Very nice and very appropriate.
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Karen is definitely an inspiration to us all. Her comments went straight to the heart. xo
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Perfection! Karen, I hope you feel all the love coming your way! 🙂
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One of my favorite quotes. And yes, Karen, we are holding you in our hearts.
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I love this quote also and repeat it to myself often, especially when I am tempted to one-up or put-down. Thanks for reminding us, Marie.
And to Karen, love.
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dear marie,
i can’t put into words how i felt when i saw you dedicated this post and the wonderful maya angelou quote to me. most of today has been one i’ve felt i was drowning in tears of grief, coming home to an empty house for the first time, listening to songs on the radio we both loved singing along to, and seeing so many happy couples holding hands as they walked the streets of our town, just like we did every day, such a short time ago. but when i saw the kind and loving things you wrote, as well as the generous and thoughtful wishes and messages written by all my lovely, sweet friends in their comments my tears turned to ones of such overwhelming gratitude . so it’s true, it’s really true that love and caring and compassion can be so powerful; and that thankfullness can fill an empty heart. and that quote is true, too, because i will always remember how you made me feel.
much love and thanks, dear marie,
karen, XOXO
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Oh my dear Karen – my heart aches for you thinking of how it is to come home to an empty house. I cannot bear to visit my parents home anymore now that my beloved mother is no longer there. And how much more unbearable it must be for my dear father who has lost his life’s companion as you have. Their absence is felt so keenly when we are among those familiar places and faces. I have no words of comfort except to say if heartfelt wishes and prayers could ease your pain, they are sent to you in abundance xxxxxxxx
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thank you marie. i want to say something along the lines of what our dear annemarie said. she talked about how you are the beautiful and giving person who ties the BC community together, so lovingly and generously. and she is right. so many people love you, and thank their lucky stars they found you. your eloquent and heartfelt and very informative posts have helped our BC familiy remain focused on deeply valuing compassion, love, and support, as well as on our desire to help uplift the many conversations about issues that continue to distract us from being proactive and often lead to devisivness.
i want to you know that i have the will and the hope that i can re-emerge from the horrible loss of hugh and the grief that now attempts to chew me up and spit me out a much better version of myself. i have discovered one miniscule way to help me cope after periods of raw grief that is so wrenching i think at times i might die. after those wave pass i always expect that i will feel some modicum of relief. instead, i feel, i can only express it as – like a blank. nothing there, no feelings whatsoever. it’s a time that is very disarming and confusing. but i have been thinking a lot about those moments of blankness, and wonder if they serve a purpose. in those moments i feel i can make a choice. i can escape into sleep, a knee-jerk response to the exhaustion i feel, and the desire to get away from such pain. or, i can chose to get outside of myself and turn to something that soothes and makes me happy – putter in the garden, pick up the compelling book i’ve been reading, call a friend who’s said they’d like to get together, or catch up with my dear blogger friends. so far, i’ve chosen to do something that gives me some happiness. in short, maybe that aftermath, being totally blank, is allowing me a little space to have some control when raw grief has had it’s way with me and i have no control whatsoever. maybe that will get wired into my brain. i hope it will because when i can turn outside of myself i feel the light of gratidue that has nearly become extinguished become re-lit, and it is that renewal of light that will help me eventually find my way. it’s something to ponder, isn’t it? but i don’t count on formulaic answers and know i am in for a long haul of being beaten and battered about. still, having any kind of respite from the awful sensation of feeling nothing, that is so foreign and bewildering to me, is simply grace and a gift to help me. on the otherhand, i can imagine myself just as well curling up in fetal position and sleeping hours and hours away, hoping that my beloved will visit me in my dreams, who’s to know? if i really know what’s good for me, i best just take it as it comes.
thank you, marie, for sharing so much of what you have been through with the loss of your dear mother, and how it has affected your poor father. i, too, am in such pain to see the dreadful sorrow of our children and grandchildren grieving the loss of their father and their papa, as well of the acute pain they feel on my behalf. perhaps the ravages of loss and how we deal with it will be a tribute to hugh, that sweet man whose was born and kept the memory from where he came from before he entered this world – that the whole purpose of life is love. he lavished it with beautiful abandon upon us all. now we must take up what he taught us and live that truth to get where we need to be.
please know that i truly feel your heartfelt wishes for me, and am honored by any prayer you would say for me.
much love and my wishes to you to find comfort in your sorrrow,
karen
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