MARCH - A MONTH OF TRANSITION

~ Author Unknown"

The first day of any new month seems reason enough to pause, perhaps, and reflect on the significance or meaning that each of us might "connect" with a new month. For me, March has always signified a time of transition, a slow but steady emergence from the dark depths of winter into the first, but sure, signs of spring. Something like the “light at the end of the tunnel.”

This spring will have a different meaning for each of us. For some, especially the newly bereaved, there will be a reluctance to accept it—a feeling of longing for the child with whom we would have liked to share it. You may wish to ignore the signs of the year’s springs, but it will happen anyway. But you don’t have to enjoy it. Your sorrow is too new to let you enjoy anything. We understand this feeling. It’s part of the guilt we feel for surviving the loss of a child. It just won’t seem fair to you that the world goes on much the same as before.

Others of us, with the aid of time, sometimes much time, can face spring with a little more resolve. The decision to accept things the way they are allows us to recognize our limitations. We stop hurting ourselves with guilt or with the responsibility to change things. There is no way to change the fact that our children have died. The only thing we can change is ourselves. Those children will always be with us in our minds and in our hearts. When we become secure in this belief, we will have changed. The changed person can accept life again and still be faithful to the memory of her child.