Watching other Parent's grieve a lost child is even more painful after losing my own. This episode is a reflection of the beginning and also a discussion of what helped me in the beginning and an acknowledgement of how my own life has changed.

Unfortunately, I had some recording errors and had to republish this episode, no intro on this one! Thank you for listening.

I have found that I haven't known what is going to help me move forward in my grief until it does. Much of my healing comes in retrospect: This worked, that didn't, and so on.

Six months before Sam died, he broke into my home by smashing out one of my windows and crawling through. I put a piece of styrofoam in that window and kept it that way for nearly 4 years. Something held me back from fixing it. I chided myself for being lazy and procrastinating, but I just wasn't ready.

This past week, I finally had it replaced and I learned more about what was holding me back and how fixing it is helping me move forward.

I don't intend to let go of any part of Sam's story, every single moment was part of his experience. However, I now understand how I am able let some of my darkest moments become smaller by taking steps forward in my own life.💕

Today's Episode is about gratitude because I think it is the defining emotion of my healing. Finding gratitude outside of our grief helps us to and shift our mind into a different perspective.

I will NEVER feel gratitude about the death of my son but I will ALWAYS seek to find it in other areas of my life and let it help lift me out of despair.

Today, I will go over a few of the well known benefits to feeling grateful, briefly discuss why these benefits occur, some simple ways to tap into the emotion of gratitude, and I will also give my own perspective as to why gratitude is so powerful in moving forward in life.💕