Tag: Moving forward

There Is Something Better Out There

Posted on by Gail Shurtleff in Beyond Grief, Everything Mental Health, Soul Peace and Journeys

Healing is a choice. We make it when we decide to accept that there is something better out there for ourselves. It is a choice, and there are options.

As the onion is peeled back when we do the good and hard work of uncovering in therapy, each of us needs to face the choice of getting to the sweet rather than staying in the bitter.

It is also about making the choice to move forward and to grow into new spaces in our lives. If we’re holding on to harmful thoughts and feelings, we can’t get to the sweet when we’re clinging on to the negative.

The attitude that healing isn’t a choice is destructive. We have a choice: actually, we have many choices.

We can decide to remain in the safety of the old. You can decide to hold on to the old anger and resentment. You can decide to turn and reject healing. It is a choice.

You can also make a choice for the work of uncovering and dealing with the hard facts. Healing, like not healing, is a choice we must make.

Discovering and facing our flawed selves is the hardest thing we’ll do in our lives. It is about looking in the mirror and seeing ourselves as we really are, and not the person we think we are. It is also about evaluating our inner data for the truth and the untruths.

In order to heal, we also need to spend time in knowing what is right about ourselves.

If you ask a person for a self-critique, they’ll spin out a thread of the things that they see as self-wrongs. What about the things that are right? Have we become (in Western culture) a culture of looking at the “what is wrong with me” in order to consume what advertisers tell the masses they need to be right in themselves?

Jon collected cards. He had a card in his collection that showed a guy in an auto dealership stating that he had it all. But if he only had this car… it would be perfect. Can we afford to hang our lives on the “if only?”

It’s the “if only” place that stops us from forward movement. It’s a trap. We’ll never have the “if only” because it doesn’t exist, and it can’t exist. The reality is that we make the choice to say yes to the realities of our lives as they are, and accept what we can do. Sometimes that also means accepting help and moving forward into the scary place and coming out of the forest on the other side.

Healing is about learning to accept both the good, and the areas where we can improve. We need to do both in order to heal.

Just as grief is not for wimps, healing is for the courageous. As we come out and learn to reach for the sun, and even dance in it, we are liberated to find our best selves.

There are those who will not believe my words to be possible. I get it. You hold on to the pain and stuff it down. You engage in what I call stuffology. You do this because, in your head, you just know that there is no other way to live. You’ve done this for so long that it is a firm belief in your life. I’m not talking unicorns and flower beds. I’m talking about a reality where you can safely confront the real pain and get rid of the need for an iceberg and all that goes with it.

To heal means that you must first accept that there are paths to healing. The first step on the path is to consider that the option of healing may be a viable path for you to walk on.

We don’t accept this path grudgingly. We accept the path of healing with an understanding that there will be hard work and ugly days. I keep thinking of the Josh Groban cover “When You Walk Through a Storm,” and the hopelessness we feel as we journey into the fierce winds. In the fierce winds we get knocked around, walls are taken down, doors are broken into, and what is inside gets thoroughly trashed. It hurts.

Then, and only then, does the change come. You don’t feel it because of the storm you went into. It is there all the same, and one day you notice the edges—that silver lining. You walk towards it until you notice that storm is gone, and you are standing in the warm sun! You stop, and you notice that the earth beneath your feet is stable. You’ve been on a soul journey, and the healing is real. This is a WOW moment! In my case it was the many times I spent navigating my river. You can find your own symbolism. It is yours to claim. You only need to accept that healing is a choice you can look at and engage in.

Come, find your own unique path to healing yourself. Take the journey into the sun! It feels so good!

I Suppose

Posted on by Gail Shurtleff in Musings and Insights

Before me is a blank document. What do I put on the page? This time of year used to be gentle; it has become hard. What were once simple lazy days with blue skies have become days of reflection and wondering. I tend to review, explore and wonder where I am now compared to the last year. I suppose that surviving a suicide of a husband will do that to you. I realize that his suicide freed him from a very painful life, and it presented me with a rare gift.

I am not shocked or upset by this thought. He gave me the ability to move forward myself. I was given the time and freedom to explore our relationship in ways I couldn’t do when he was alive. I was an innocent when we got together.

Before I met Jon, I didn’t understand that you could doubt or question someone’s love. Yes, I got that there was love that is dysfunctional: manipulation masking as love, and love that I had not seen. In my life, and in my mind, love was gentle. My relationship with Jon educated me in new ways. 

Relationships teach us the good, bad, and questionable things about ourselves. Living under the same roof brings with it challenges and a need for commitment to the process of growth. If there is one thing that enabled our relationship to last, it was a commitment to growth and exploring the hard things together.

Sometimes we couldn’t resolve an issue in a day, and that was OK. Being in hard places is good for growth and exploration. I learned to become more adept at remaining open to the long-term solution. There are things that only time and deep insight can resolve, and the commitment to do the work “until” is essential to making it work.

The best counsel I got from his psychiatrist was to give him space. OK, I needed to give myself space too. Walking away enabled us to resolve issues faster. I’m thankful for this knowledge, and the gift that it is.

There were times when I wondered if he could love me. The bipolar cut into him in ways that he couldn’t even express. His upbringing cut into his soul in other ways. My heart ached for the both of us at times. After his death, the love question surfaced, and I knew I’d have to face it.

There is a time in the grief process when it all gets put on the chopping block. It all has to go on the block. It is the deep work of grief and the exploration of the shadows that we hide from. If we’re willing to do the hard work of grief, we must extract the ugly, unpleasant stuff and dive in. This is where many stop their work. It is ugly and messy, and do “I” really want to face this truth? My innocence committed me to explore this place of shadows. Sometimes innocence is a great motivator.

Some couples do this hard exploration while they are together in life, and some widows or widowers are forced to do this difficult exploration after the death, and before moving into a new relationship. I had to cross into this place after, and I’m glad I did. My willingness to do the work didn’t make it any easier. I’ve always invested in self-improvement and growth.

What bipolar takes from relationships is debatable and unique to each person. It took my innocence. In saying that, I’ve had to admit that while I love Jon, he opened my eyes to a very dark side of the world. I would not have chosen to go into the dark abyss of a hell few can explain, and fewer still can understand, and yet I went, and I find that I don’t regret the journey to this place. It is a gift I wasn’t looking for, and I’m richer for having taken the time to open this gift.

The gift of knowing you are loved comes in many forms. In the first few years after his death, my reflections led me to explore the “he didn’t love me” side of things. Sitting with the doubt, the hurt of things done, and understanding who he was deep within, moved me to the place of love. I came to a realization that through all of it he tried his best, and so did I. There was love in the tiny things he tried to do. There was love in the sneaky things he pulled off; there was love in the gifts he thoughtfully gave, and in a mixed-up way, even in the way he ended his life. In that velvet way, I didn’t even notice the change I’d made in my thinking. Wow!

When I think about what it means to show love in deep ways, he did his best to do that. I accept what he wasn’t capable of doing. I can also view my side of things with more realism. I can take responsibility for the failures and the successes of my part of the relationship, and some of it hurts.

I suppose this journey is about being able to find the deep peace that I’ve needed to put things to rest. Coming to this knowing also brings up the fact that nothing is ever at an end point. Only the final eye closure can and will bring things to an end.

I find that I’m standing taller; I’m wiser, and at the same time I question more.

As I pass into this new place where the gifts are for opening and exploring, I turn, look back, and realize that the lazy summers of exploration have gifted me some cloud-filled summer days. I suppose that’s just fine.

The Photo

Posted on by Gail Shurtleff in The Suicide and its Aftermath

Each year since my husband’s death in 2016, when August rolls around I dread it. It is creepy, and while it is getting better, it is still something I am dealing with. Earlier this month I posted on my Instagram account. When I saw this shot it gave me the creeps. I have been in this creepy, stormy place in my mind. Having to go in once again didn’t thrill me. Then something happened.

When I showed this photo to a friend, he exclaimed: “I’ve stood in this very place!” He proceeded to tell me about this spot, which was in Maine, where the villagers watch the storms that come in. As he talked about his childhood, and what that place meant to him, I began to see life and love in the photo.

Maybe it was time for me to attempt a rethink of August. In having these thoughts, I wondered how that could happen. When I think about August now, the rush of memories of where we were and what was happening during those weeks leading up to his death assaults me every time I open the calendar on my desktop. Was it even possible to consider a rethink as an option?

In my personal work around his death, I’ve reached the place where the good days far outweigh the bad days. My appointment book and calendar are filled with things that make me happy and inspire me.

So, I got thinking that this round of August was going to be so much better. It was—until my individual appointment with the person I work with on a spiritual level. She took me into this familiar place. As the tears came, I realized what I’d been fighting and I talked through it. Several hours later as I sat at my computer, the depression crept up strongly, and the urge to shut it all down was great. But I didn’t.

As I sat on my bed dripping soothing eye drops into both eyes, it hit me: This is not where I want to be now! My calendar and appointment schedule are doing what I hoped they’d do when I returned to work. I’m happy about where I am and the work I’m doing. Four years later I can accept the awful that I’m feeling in the here and now, but it doesn’t have to stay around. While I know what that dark, stormy place looks and feels like, I’m not in that place anymore. I’m seeing things in new ways!

I can’t tell you when the shift happened. I can’t tell you how it happened. What I can tell you is that it was slow and gentle, and it involved my willingness to stay on this path that I’m walking on. It involved confronting the old self, being willing to engage with questions, and visiting change. Some things weren’t new to me, and others were.

Grief and loss call us to an encounter with ourselves that can be rather revolting at times. As we look in the mirror, we are asked to converse with the person staring back at us. Sometimes we must admit that what we are seeing is not something we like. At other times the image we see is one that we accept with surprise and amazement. Is this really the real me? In the moments of amazement, we are greeted with the realization that yes, I’m really doing this! Yes, what I thought would never change is changing. Then we’re taken to that place where we ask the “how” question: How did this come into being?

I believe it is a combination of both actions and events that propels us into these new spaces. Small successes that build self-esteem and allow us to reconstruct what might have been damaged by death or loss, or in other ways. The courage to dare to stick the toe into the water and test it to see if the water will tolerate the tiny toe. When we discover that first level of safety, we can progress. The testing of the waters is a small event. It is one that signals safety and that it might be OK to consider a tiny action. For some people the tiny action might be making a meal, going out to lunch, or picking up a book to read. It really depends on our personalities. My first foray back into the land of the living was a three-week trip to visit the U.S. and it was huge in so many ways. I returned knowing I could navigate places that were foreign to me: new public transit systems and other new places. Just shy of the month of August 2017, I realized that Jon would say I’m “rockin’ this!” To tell you the truth, I was terrified! It was a huge first, and it would take another year before I’d do it again. But this time, much closer to home. The second trip was a journey to Glasgow and Wales. It was all new and, once again, with the support of new friends, I made it—and I did well.

The landscape I called life changed with that trip. I wouldn’t trade it for anything! It opened up my mind and heart to new experiences, and as the next year unfolded and 2019 rolled around, the tears lessened, the new friendships began to take root, and now my legs were immersed in that water. It would really take all of 2019 for me to fully begin to swim in life’s waters again.

Now, as I write this with August in full swing, and 11 days left in the month, I stop, take a breath, and rethink the photo I posted earlier in the month. Yes, my life has really changed. Yes, Jon would love that I’m “rockin’ it.” Yes, the tiny events turned into larger actions. Yes, it has been hard. Yes, I’ve found ways to move on. Yes, I’ve met the old me and have kept much of her. She is new in many ways. I choose to stand tall and strong in this new place I call life.