Point of View

I've heard it said ,"don't go to bed while hanging on to sorrow.
You may not have the chance to laugh, with those you love tomorrow."
You may not mean the words you speak when anger takes its toll. You may regret your actions, Once you've lost self control.
When you've lost your temper and you've said some hurtful things,
Think about the heartache That your actions sometimes brings.
You'll never get those moments back, such precious time to waste, And all because of things you said, In anger and in haste.
So if you're loving someone,
And your pride has settled in, You may not ever have the chance
To say "I love you and miss youand although we don't agree,
I'll try to see your point of view, Please do the same for me."

Remind Me God

When I am lonely and perhaps I feel despair, Let not my ailing heart forget that YOU hear every prayer...
Remind me no matter what I do or fail to do,
There still is hope for as long as I have FAITH in YOU...
Let not my eyes be blinded by some folly I commit, But help me to regret my wrong and make amends for it.
Inspire me to put my fears upon a hidden shelf, and in the future try not to feel sorry for myself.
Give me restful sleep I need, Before another dawn,
And bless me in the morning with
THE COURAGE TO GO ON!

The Gift

I have a gift.
I did not want this gift, it meant suffering and pain
The pain because of love.
A love which had manifest itself in a child.
The child brought her love to me and asked for my love.
Sometimes I did not understand this.
Sometimes I was too busy to listen quietly to this love.
But the love persistent, it was always there.
And one day the child died.
The love remained
This time the love came in other forms.
This time there were memories,
There was sadness and anguish, and unbelieveble pain.
One day a stranger came and stood with me.
The stranger said "I understand" And did.
You see the stranger had also been this way.
We talked and cried together.
The stranger became my friend as no other had.
My friend said, " I am always here." and was.
One day I lifted my head
I noticed another grieving ,gray and drawn with pain

I approached and spoke.
I touched and comforted.
I said "I will walk with you."
And I did.
I also had the gift.

Joe Lawley
TCF Co-Founder

The Lonely Nights

As the full moon rises and the stars shine so bright, I sit here and wonder, are you with me tonight? I gaze out my window and wish upon a star, that someday I could look at the world where you are.
I don't want to stay, I just want to peek and get a glimpse of the place one day we will meet.
I still have much to learn here and the road is very long, The lessons are hard, but I'm trying to be strong.
I guess if you helped mewith the lessons I must learn, I would not have to stay here , and like you, could return.
But if you'd help me with my life here each day, and teach me to visit the place where you stay, I would not have to gaze out my window and wish upon a star, because I would be visiting the place where you are and then I would see all the great Celestial bliss and would no longer yearn for the light where you stay, because I could come visit you there everyday!

The Mourning After

When a significant person in your life has died, you feel like you have crash-landed into a whole new world. Your feelings of loss and bewilderment will last for a long time. As you try to make your way through this "Valley of the shadow of death", grief may so completly take over and manage your life that you may feel like a small boat adrift and helpless on a stormy sea. If you do not find some constructive ways of managing it-it will manage you. This is not something that someone else can do for you.
The purpose of my Weblog is to help you understand your not alone in the way you feel and why you sometimes may think you are losing your mind. Why am I doing this? Because I have lost my 20 year old daughter Helen and realize that this is my only way right now to handle my own grief, by trying to be there for others who have lost their child or children. To share my thoughts, feelings and my own personal grief experience.

My daughter passed away suddenly during the night in my home a year ago July 18, 2004. I found her face down in my upstairs hallway dead and gone with her baby boy asleep on her back. I was devastated! I still feel devastated and feel like I will never again be truly happy. My world has been turned upside down. They say it is normal.
What is normal anymore?

None of us can prevent what life brings us, but we can determine what we do about it. There is no experience in life which we cannot work our way through. However tell that to a Mother who has lost her child. Grieving the loss of a child is the most painful of all human experience. It produces a variety of emotional and physical symptoms which are dusturbing and sometimes terrifying, mostly because we feel alone and that noone else is suffering as we are.

I have heard many times in my life that time heals all wounds. God doesn't give is anymore than we can handle. Well how much am I suppose to handle anyways? I feel my load is to heavy already.

i tried support groups however maybe it is still to soon for me or maybe they just not for me at all. I only know that sharing my thoughts, feelings and experience her with others is helping me right now. This focus outside myself will enable me to survive. There are no magic pills to help me escape the suffering of grief any more than there is an escape from the pain that follows surgery or a severe illness.But I can do more than survive. I can emerge as a better person if I really work at it. The worst thing I can do right now is nothing.

Courage is not having the strength to go on; Its going on when you don't have the strength!

Have a Blessed day!!