Life Goes On and On and On

Life goes on.

It seems like there is no possible way that a month has passed since my sister passed away. It seems like yesterday or at least last week that the entire family was sleeping by her bedside and scattered around the waiting room into the wee hours of the night (or nights)

Life has continued.

Her beautiful youngest daughter is continuing to blossom with pregnancy, her oldest just got engaged and the middle one is attempting to raise her puppy! I'm settling in out of state and winter is fast approaching.

The future.

Its hard to look out over the next couple of months and to guess what life will be like. How do you celebrate the holidays? How will we be when our nieces daughter is born without her grandma to coo over her? How will I not look in stores for the one special gift for my sister that we secretly gave each other every year at Christmas? Will we know the difference between tears of joy and tears of sadness when her oldest walks down the isle?

I suppose that lifes lessons are not always enjoyable ones. Who wants to learn how to grieve? Who wants to learn how to smile through tears? Who wants to learn to be happy about the little things and big things without guilt? So hard.

We've all survived the last thirty days. Life has went on, babies will be born, vows will be exchanged and the holidays will soon creep upon us. Our family will continue to grow...not only in size but in strength.

I think death can tear apart a family or can bring it together. I'm not sure much could tear apart this one though. We are all stubborn, loud and opinionated.....Jims sons and daughters with a little of Dawn thrown in to keep us grounded. We have passed this on to our children..the nieces (all of them) and our poor little nephew...hopefully he survives.

I have a little sign on my wall that I read everyday...because its there.

Happiness is a journey, not a destination.

Maybe we all worry about the destination to much and don't focus enough on the journey. And maybe we should pay attention more to who is on the journey with us.

Family
Friends
Neighbors

It might be bumpy, full of holes and u-turns, but there is nobody in the world I would like to have had to take this journey with then the ones I have...