Last month was Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness month, PAIL for short. And for the first time, I participated in the #CaptureYourGrief project and finished out the entire month. A goal that has been hard to reach in past years as this project dives so deep in to each individual's grief journey. This year was so, so therapeutic.
The part of the project that touched me the most, which was completely unexpected, was the number of people who reached out to me privately to either share their own experiences with loss, or to thank me for being so open and honest about my own grief journey. It was amazing! We still have so far to go in society to recognize that grief exists and it doesn't have a timeline and that it looks different for each individual, and yet we've come so far already. I'm thankful that today I can share my experiences, even when others feel they can't, or shouldn't. Possibly the most precious was a newer acquaintance on Facebook sharing her lost children's names with me. I tear up thinking of it now, such a touching moment. I feel honored that she shared something so dear to her with me, that she felt she could trust me with knowing something so precious to her.
As I stated in my first post on October 1st, sometimes an old wound needs to be ripped back open and cleaned out in order to heal better. This is exactly what the Capture Your Grief project did for me this year. I was hurting so much, as for whatever reason 6 years has felt the hardest in a while. Through this project, I was able to dig deep and pull out what was eating away at my heart. And the outward display, laying it all out for everyone to see and hopefully come to understand, felt so good.
I will continue to share my grief journey and all of it's ups and downs.
Because I've got a lotta love to give.
