Transitions

I LOVE people. My life is enhanced through sharing experiences, ideas, time, space, stories and hugs.

Since childhood I have rarely been alone. I am the oldest of eight, and left home at 16 to work as a residential housemother to 18 children, (still just a child myself). Then, I married and had four children before I was 30, eventually choosing a teaching career where I interacted with hundreds of young people daily. Every encounter, in its own way, a blessing.

Until recently, when aloneness imposed itself on me with the death of my beloved, Bill, and retirement beckoned, I did not know if I could endure the unique loneliness.

I discovered how grief, my uninvited companion, relentlessly elbowed it’s way in, pounding every atom of my being searching for a permanent place to settle, undisturbed.

Returning to Wales gifted me with time to reflect in exquisite, natural surroundings while my soul rediscovered the need for solitary silence.

Over time, immersed in that silence, I have come to understand that grief, once settled in, is a considerate resident and great pals with gratitude.

I am also discovering that although being with others brings me most joy, the lesson from this year of transition, that has most deeply settled within my heart, is that with God’s grace I can find solace, happiness and peace in my own company.