Hello Beautiful person! Welcome back to healing your grief two minutes at a time. This week is my mom’s 6th Angel Birthday. It is really hard to believe that that amount of time has gone by and that my life is where it is today and it’s all because of this major life change. You know, I never would have planned my life to be this way but I think, sometimes, when we just put our lives into God’s hands, he takes us places that we would have never imagined or dreamed of but it is His plan. With that plan though there tends to be grief and suffering and hardship and so I want to share a Buddhist teaching that has been so helpful for me. It’s that suffering teaches us compassion and understanding. It is actually the reward. They refer to it as the reward from all of that suffering and hardship. The reward is understanding and compassion which then ultimately leads to our happiness. And I know it’s a tough road and it’s a hard road. It’s very lonely. We have to do it ourselves. I’m sure that you feel that way right now with your loved one. But I want to share with you something that came from that hardship and that suffering. My book, Angel Birthdays. It is one of those things that I feel brought purpose to the pain and I KNOW that there is no pain without purpose and I know sometimes that’s really hard to grasp when we’re in thick of our grief but there is a beautiful glorious plan and celebrating it as an Angel Birthday can be a unique way to help you heal. It provides tangible activities. In the book, the children host an angel birthday party. They get balloons and they write messages on them and send them up. They bake grandma’s favorite cake and sing Happy Angel Birthday loud enough for her to hear. And the presents for the party are actually memory boxes and they fill the memory boxes up with their keepsakes and their love letters- all to remember their grandma. It brings healing and a softer way to talk about that day. I know it has been life-saving for my family and for my girls and just an easier way for us to talk about it. Enjoy giving gratitude and sending love and cherishing your loved one with your angel birthday. I hope that you go and you celebrate and you give that love and that gratitude and I wish for you healing and compassion and understanding and happiness. I hope you have a wonderful week. Take care.