A book in memory of Grandma Mary

The project in a nutshell:

Attention all of you who love immersing yourselves in beautifully heart rending non-fiction books! I am inviting beautiful book lovers to join me on the journey of creating a beautiful memorial book for the person who was most dear to me in this life: My Grandma.  The story I hold in my heart highlights one of the most selfless examples of lifelong love ever to grace the earth and I am bursting to tell the beautiful tale! 

This project will also serve as a journey through the process of healing grief using the expressive and therapeutic arts.  Those who join me on this journey will gain access to a blog containing tools, techniques and the heartfelt expressive responses to those who join me on this journey!  Together we can intertwine throughout the process of healing!

The background story:

When I was born, my Grandma granted my Mother and I a generous gift in proclaiming I “was born for her' and that she would help to raise me.   From that day forward, she lovingly upheld and fulfilled that lifelong vow without ever failing. 

During one of our many emotionally vulnerable and purely heartfelt conversations Grandma and I had, she let me know she believed that sometimes people who love one another well enough grow so close it seems they share the same heart.

The two of us were a lot like that. We clung to each other and grew together like two trees, inseparably intertwined. For as long as I can remember I wanted to emulate her every move and her every way of being... from her finesse in cooking grand family meals to her joyful barefoot summer gardening or the times we settled in and sewed beside the fireplace.

Each stitch of time shared was an act of sublime compassion and empathetic unity.

She continually embraced the value and the preciousness of all life.  She taught me to marvel at even the tiniest forms of life contained in garden seed.  She explained with great care how with a bit of sun, water and a nurturing bed of well laid and fertilized soil that little life within the seed could grow. I believed all of my life that ‘everything grows better in Grandma’s hands’ because as an avid gardener this was such a true statement, but this phrase came to mean even more than that as time moved on.

She not only honored plants and animals, but she also honored each one of her children and grandchildren with just the right type of life-giving and unconditionally faithful love. Those who were nurtured by her blossomed better because she knew how to provide just the right sort of special and gentle care that each of us individually needed. She knew not everyone thrives on the same things and how to share her love in just the right ways to help us each out the best she could. Even as she moved through the indignities of age and lost her ability to enjoy the things that she once most loved about life, she never lost her love for any of us.  We all grew better in her hands!

A continuing life song:

Now, only a few months after her passing I realize that she gifted so much of her lifelong love unto me for a greater reason. She saw that I carried her life-song within me and that I was the right person to eventually come to tell the tales and to come to support others who needed an embrace along their grief journeys. Now that I face life without her, I recognize that I am the one who is responsible for fulfilling my own beautiful life destiny and for helping others to heal.

Throughout ages of careworn moments, Grandma propped me back up when I found myself drained or battered by the elements. Her constant and neverending faith in my ability to create a beautiful destiny was never lost on me.

I have now found a platform from which to show the world my finer qualities and to help others feel supported and propped up when they are a bit down trodden and droopy.  Iknow it is my time to honor her life and the finer messages of love she left behind for me to unravel through this project of healing.

My education and background:

I recently earned a master’s degree in Thanatology, which is the study of death and dying.  While completing the capstone project for this degree, I used the expressive and therapeutic art methods that  I learned during my undergraduate studies to soothe my own personal grief. I chose this creative approach when studying death because I realized I absolutely needed to find ways to cope introspectively while bearing the weight of knowing the impermanence of everything.
 
Throughout the education process, I practiced dealing with the losses I experienced using painting, drawing, dancing, singing, walking through labyrinths, writing poetry and developing narratives. I created many expressive art pieces and highlighted my work through videos containing the most touching parts of the heart rending grief journey. You can see some of my artwork by clicking HERE and going to my personal website. I find that creating expressive artwork is healing for me and it serves as a natural extension of my very being.

I also run a freelance copy-editing business. This business involves carefully poring over the finer details of language, grammar, punctuation and formatting to supporting doctoral candidates who need professional assistance when edit their dissertations. It is my work to assure that their final written work is both beautiful and succinct. I know these skills will be so valuable as I write my this book about Grandma.

The marriage between the creative and disciplined parts of my personality will allow me to create a beautifully illustrated memory book of the most beautiful loving moments I experienced with my Grandma and the parallel journey of grief.

How you can join me in this journey and what you will receive:

I am inviting people along on this frank and heartfelt journey through grief as the story of unconditional love unravels. As a part of an exclusively healing community, I will not only invite you to share blog of my progress, but you will be able to access guided expressive and therapeutic art activities that will also help you to heal. By accessing bits and pieces of the unfolding story of unconditional love Grandma left with me, together we will find ways to shine with our inner expressive light, even through the paths of grief.

I feel honored by anyone who chooses to intertwine with me on this beautifully healing journey and I am so inspired to step forth and see where the journey leads!! THANK YOU!