In grief we talk about being heartbroken, what I want to suggest is that our heart is NOT broken, it is still capable of loving again, it is still beating to keep us alive. Maybe what we should say is that we are heart – cracked!
I often think that the words we use, don’t help us through our bereavement. If we believe it is broken then, we automatically think that there is no hope. There is hope, we have read stories on the blog of people who have found a new way of being happy, or even falling in love …read more

Early this year I posted about my aims for 2007 back in January which looked like…

Publish the Widows Quest podcast by 12 January and keep to a weekly schedule.
Lose 2 stone in weight(28lbs)
Join a community group to support others with bereavement.
Achieve a life/work balance by downsizing both my career and my lifestyle.
Move house – back nearer to my family and friends.

I am proud to say that (3) and (4) have been achieved! I am disappointed to say that my house is still for sale so (5) is still on hold. As for (2) well the news is superb as I …read more

I love to remember the great things of being in love, I use it to balance out the pain of losing someone.
Love brought

Laughter at even the silliest things
Tears of joy at the happiest times
The feeling of being wanted, the feeling of belonging
Days  that seemed to fly by…
The feeling of being safe
Pain when I thought my heart would explode  

and love brought a flood of tears when we were parted…
What did love to bring to you?

Tens of thousands of Elvis devotees will make the pilgrimage to Graceland this week to mark the 30th anniversary of his death on Thursday. Elvis touched people’s lives and continues to do so, to a whole new generation. The Elvis legacy shows that death does not mean the end…your legacy will always live on.  Some lessons from the anniversary for me are

The need to build a memorial to allow their legacy to live on.It may be physically smaller than Gracelands (!) but not emotionally.
Find ways of keeping them in your life…Elvis does this through his songs, maybe for your loved …read more

I am travelling today and just pondering on why death is so shocking? After all it is the only certainty in life, we know it will happen, we know that nothing is for ever. Yet the shock is a huge part of the grief, as though we were just not built to deal with such strong feelings. For something that was bound to happen to us during our life, we don’t seem to be wired very well to cope with it…what do you think?

I always feel slightly uncomfortable when the news contains stories of famous people who died. I think it is because I think of all the ordinary people who have died, the soldiers etc who die without the world really knowing. The news that Ingmar Bergman the film director has died is intriguing for me because of his “dark films”His childhood had been strict and that lead to enormously emotional films. I was touched by this statement
“A lot happened when Ingrid died,” Nyrerod told The Associated Press. She said Bergman continued to feel the presence of von Rosen after she died, …read more

I spoke to mum today about what she would say were the 3 key things that helped her get over dad dying. Here are her 3 key steps

 Accepting his death. Accepting that it was better that he has gone than him suffering as much as he was…no matter how strong the pain, the pain would have been worse watching him suffer.
Allowing friends to persuade her to go out…”giving in” and as much as she did not want to go out, forcing herself into social situations.
The power of the telephone and talking to her friends – it provided comfort and also …read more

To overcome the period of mourning, to overcome the hurt we need a great deal of inner belief.
B= Believe in your ability to cope with the pain and come through even stronger.
E= Expect to be happy again.
L=Learn to love again. Trust that the benefit of love is greater than the pain of loss.
I=Inspire your inner beliefs by setting goals for your future…inspirational goals that you can work towards.
E= Emotions. Understand your emotions, don’t fight them. Learn how to control them and what ma  kes you happy.
F= Face your problems – they will not go away, face them to face your …read more

When you lose someone you love, you discover a lot about yourself. I wanted to share with you what I have learned during the bereavement process.
D= Determined to continue to live life to the fullest – and not waste the precious time we have on this earth.
I= Inner thoughts are so important. Your self talk is so strong, the more you can change the way you talk to yourself in a positive way, the more you start to move forward.
S= Sentimental! I never used to keep things, now I treasure all the little mementos.
C= Courage. It would be easy to …read more

Welcome to the July 20, 2007 edition of how to solve money worries.

ChristianPF presents How to make more money with your emergency fund posted at Money in the Bible | Christian Personal Finance Blog, saying, “A quick how-to showing you how to use an emergency fund to save more money and increase it’s growth rate.”

Millionaire Mommy Next Door presents Create Your Treasure Map To Riches posted at Millionaire Mommy Next Door, saying, “Visualizing what wealth means to you shapes the way your mind thinks about money and your life. Your mind then sets in motion the actions necessary to …read more