Aspire Magazine: Inspiration for a Woman's Soul.(TM) Aug/Sept 2017 Aspire Mag Full Issue | Page 38

My Journey Through Grief to Gratitude BY JAMI HEARN E very person’s experience around grief is uniquely their own, and every one of them is exactly perfect. I am sharing my own because it is utterly important that you love yourself through the snot filled tears and angry outbursts... right up through the beautiful moment that the gratitude firmly seats in your core! I have always been comfortable with death. Perhaps that is because I believe that death is a transition and the energy of the soul can communicate with us beyond the veil… or perhaps, my perspective comes from my family’s tradition of celebrating the life of our loved one. Mourning is left to days or weeks later… by yourself. My first recollection of the celebration of life was for my great grandfather when I was 4. My most vivid memory, from that day, is of my 11 year-old cousin being inconsolable… I could not fathom why she was so upset… he was old and miserable… why didn’t she realize that this was best for him… and us… no more suffering and no more having to watch it. I have experienced the normal spectrum of deaths. My best friend in high school, in a car accident, my cousin at 24 years old to brain aneurysms; my dad when I was 34 and most recently my grandfather. 38 www.AspireMAG.net | August / September 2017