Healing and Moving Forward

It's been 7 months since the loss of my brother and although I miss him more than words can express, I have felt a small sense of healing taking place. We still have his property, house, boat, and so on and we plan to keep that for now.

My parents have been diligent in keeping up the massive amounts of yard work that needs to be done. He lived in a rural area on quite a bit of acreage and his house was surrounded by a few small bodies of water. It is really a beautiful area out there. I would actually contemplate building my forever house on that land one day. My mom and dad always seem to do this labor intensive work during the week day mornings and I told them that I would be glad to help out if they would save it for the weekends (when I had some free time).

I felt the bomb beginning to drop when my father said, "Welllllllll....what I REALLY need is......" I felt that ache in the pit of my stomach, but was more than willing to do whatever that request was going to be. He asked if I would be willing to go inside of the house and pack up my brother's things. Gulp. Yes. It really does need to be done and I would be more than honored to be able to quietly go through things and reflect on the happy memories of the past.

I am ready.

In the days ahead, I will begin making plans to do this with a small bit of joy in my heart. The past has been a very difficult adjustment for my family. We have had prayers galore and have felt and needed every single one of those.

Time is the healer of all things. It doesn't mean that you ever forget. It just means that you are allowed to move on to a new normal. Not better. Just new.