{"id":489,"date":"2016-01-28T21:51:40","date_gmt":"2016-01-29T03:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/masterkey.betterdayskc.com\/?p=489"},"modified":"2016-01-28T21:51:40","modified_gmt":"2016-01-29T03:51:40","slug":"week-17a-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.journeyofaday.com\/?p=489","title":{"rendered":"Week 17A – Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"grief\"<\/p>\n

Last week, I shared a classmate’s story about a life that I would gift.\u00a0 This week, our class has been reading obituaries every day, so my mind has wandered to death.<\/p>\n

I knew I would dread this assignment.\u00a0 I haven’t read an obituary, even for people I know and love, since my husband died.\u00a0 This week, this assignment has put me back on an inner emotional roller coaster.\u00a0 As I read through the words, I can feel the pain of the family member who wrote the loving words.\u00a0 I remember the tearful stress I was under to come up with a suitable picture, with phrases, words that hinted at accomplishments and achievements made by a man I loved more than life, taken away from life, from me, from our children WAY too early.<\/p>\n

I predictably broke down in grief again, feeling the pain the families are suffering in each day’s newspaper, grateful for the support given during their family member’s courageous fight against whatever disease took them.\u00a0 I felt the pain of the family whose married daughter, and loving wife, passed away suddenly, in her sleep, along with her unborn child.\u00a0 Her first chance to be a mother gone, a woman who had served for years helping families and kids at the city children’s hospital.\u00a0 The artist whose work was shown around the world who died unexpectedly in his home.\u00a0 How his grandchildren will miss the trips to beautiful places where grandfather would paint, fish, hike and share stories with the family around a campfire all night.<\/p>\n

The pictures I saw – so much life, so much love for life in their eyes, so much promise toward living their dreams.\u00a0 It has been a rough week … and not only for me, but for all those who have suffered loss.<\/p>\n

So what are the next steps?\u00a0 We weren’t told.\u00a0 Are we to write our own obituary?\u00a0 Just develop appreciation for life, and recognize how precious this gift is as a reminder to not squander it?\u00a0 Regardless of where our class might go, this has been a valuable week to focus on, and appreciate the gifts in my life.<\/p>\n

I appreciate my family and friends, for the generous love of God, food on the table, my wonderful cats, for the work I have so I can contribute in some way, for the MKMMA class #masterkeyexperience and the inspiring, stellar people I’ve met through it, and throughout my life.\u00a0 Life is good.\u00a0 We just need to see it that way and mostly LIVE it that way.\u00a0 Give yourself permission and go for it.\u00a0 Wishing you the best in life!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, I shared a classmate’s story about a life that I would gift.\u00a0 This week, our class has been reading obituaries every day, so my mind has wandered to death. I knew I would dread this assignment.\u00a0 I haven’t read an obituary, even for people I know and love, since my husband died.\u00a0 This …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.journeyofaday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.journeyofaday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.journeyofaday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journeyofaday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journeyofaday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.journeyofaday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.journeyofaday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journeyofaday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journeyofaday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}