Reflecting on a life-changing year for me and the gifts it’s given me to take into 2024.

Why we celebrated Christmas for the first time in eighteen years, and some thoughts about changing perspectives.

On Sunday afternoon, I had the privilege of being interviewed on Facebook by author Joy Norstrom, one of the authors with whom I am co-hosting the Inspiring Women event at Audreys Books in Edmonton on Thursday. (The other is P.D. Workman.) For posterity's sake, and in case you missed it, I am copying the interview here.

You might think your story isn't that special, that you have nothing to give. But if you think about it, you'll probably realize that you have already learned some life lessons that others would benefit from. Have you ever wondered how your story might be a powerful blessing to others?

Two years later, we are still completely humbled when we consider the massive wave of support we received when Levi died. I am convinced that the support of our community through that first difficult year had a good deal to do with the progress we made in our healing. Yes, the work of grief must be done on an individual basis. But knowing that we were never alone had a significant impact on how brave we were in approaching that work.

I know that sunflowers think their job is to propagate their species by creating seeds. But today? It was to teach me that even when we've been hammered by life, and everything seems wretched, and we are broken all over the ground, we can still be beautiful.

Bitter or better? We can choose how we heal from loss. It's all in what we focus on.

Every day is another step forward. Every day, grief morphs and whirls and changes into a different shape, like dancing aurora borealis. And lately, I have been surprised by joy.

There is no "one-time thing" when it comes to grief.

Obstacles will always be there, right in front of everything you want to achieve or do, from painting a room to building a multi-national company. At the beginning, when there are the most obstacles between you and your goal, it is tempting to focus on those and decide that the end result just isn't worth the effort.

Dear Levi...

I can't tell you how many things this year I wish you could have done with us,  or the things I wanted to show you. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to hold you close or hear your laugh. I can't tell you how broken I feel without you here.

I learned so much from being your mama. And by God's grace, I am learning still,