It has been a challenging week.
We lost our cat Salem on Thursday-completely unexpectedly and the loss is heavy on my heart.
Salem has been part of our family for 7 years and was only about 2 when he joined us on a walk, and started showing up for breakfast each morning.
It was September of 2012 when he started across the street and couldn’t make it. After a trip to the vet, and no luck at finding any owners he became our first cat.
He taught me how affectionate, smart and amazing cats can be.
It still hurts.
Friday, Munson, our almost 16 year-old will be going in for surgery to remove a giant cyst from his head. We are praying all goes well.
What has been a life line to me this past week has been my new journaling obsession.
I purchased a Smashbook on Wednesday and have been smashing in all the creative projects and inspirations I have been pinning on Pinterest. The creative outlet has been helping me deal with and process my grief.
I have also started making my own journal out of an old composition book using a tutorial I found on Pinterest.
Still the sadness hits me out of nowhere and it feels the air has been knocked from my lungs.
On Saturday, DH and I went to an Open Mic. One of the poets that read shared a poem with a line that said (and I am paraphrasing), “let me be doesn’t mean leave me alone.”
How often do we see people sad, angry, frustrated and we try to change that. We tell them things will be alright, we tell them that the sun always shines tomorrow. We rarely let people just be in their emotions.
That’s where journaling is so powerful. It allows you to cut, paste, write, paint, scribble and be with whatever you are feeling.
It can be hard to sit with and process all those feelings but ultimately less painful than burying or avoiding them.
Over the next few days I will share some of my journal pages with you. If you want to see more of what inspires me you can follow my pins on Pinterest or on Twitter or Facebook.
Hoping the sun is shining where you are.