What You Need To Know When When Your Heart Is Grieving

Looking for a soothing word for a heavy heart? Here’s what you need to know for a grieving heart and how to find your next small move.

I almost chickened out…

of writing today.

Some of you may already know that my amazing, kind, supportive and lovely Aunt Jeanie, lost her battle to pancreatic cancer, in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Just six days after we snapped this photo and I hugged her for the last time.

The picture below, is from one year ago exactly, when I wrote this post, after visiting our extended family for my cousin’s wedding.

Oh friend, yes – we were bracing for impact of the worst…

but not yet.

And so?

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.

And in the middle of my mixed up thoughts, memories, and heart cries…there is a scripture that keeps interrupting my thoughts and over-riding all of the other subconscious noise clutter.

The scripture verse that keeps powering and pushing past all other thoughts, over and over again is this.

“We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”

2 Corinthians 5:8 NKJV

I also love the Amplified Bible version:

“We are of good courage and confident hope, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”

To be absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord.

I love how “to be present” with the Lord is exchanged for “to be at home” with the Lord.

At home.

Home is where my Aunt Jeanie is.

And, it is in this promise.

This truth.

This scripture, that keeps overriding all the noise in my mind…

that makes it possible for Peace to absorb and hold steady…

all the other emotions bubbling up in my heart.

Yes, Peace is getting the final word.

Friend, I don’t know where you are, how you are feeling or what you might be going through today.

But perhaps…you need this little scripture nugget or a gentle head-lifting word.

I know I need it…maybe you need it to.

Let’s go there together.

What You Need To Know When When Your Heart Is Grieving

Shawn and I have been watching This is Us on demand, because we missed the final season when it was airing in real time.

There is a particular line that I keep coming back to from Rebecca Pearson’s “Mom speech” during the Pearson family meeting.

“Make the Big Moves…even if they’re small moves.”

Rebecca Pearson

That’s the line I keep coming back to.

“Make the big moves…even if they’re small moves.“

And friend…I think I keep coming back to this line in particular…

Because?

I’ve kind of decided recently that…for me?

It’s the small moves that really matter.

It’s the small decisions and the smallest strokes…that when added together, one after the other…layering on top of one another…

They are the humble and meek moves, that are building the foundation to the life I am creating.

And yet?

Do you ever feel like you don’t know what you’re doing?

Anyone?

Or perhaps…you are thriving in one area and totally winging it in another.

I going to go out on a limb and say that not too many of us know what we are doing in all the areas.

Like, we have everything locked down and it’s smooth sailing on crystal clear waters…not a cloud in the sky.

No, I think we all have our stuff.

Whether it’s…

Grief stuff.

Spouse stuff.

Job stuff.

Children stuff.

It’s stuff piled on stuff.

But what I’m learning and growing more and more accustom to is –

This idea that…I’ll be spending the rest of my life…sorting out the stuff…and all the small moves that go along with it.

And that’s O.K.

Because, that’s just it.

Most of the time we really don’t know what we are doing in all the areas…

Because if we’re honest?

The big moves are…blurry.

The small moves are…closer.

More clear.

So we saddle up and move towards them…because we know…small moves have a tendency to cause a ripple effect for a forward paced life lived out in faith…if we’re willing to make them.

The small moves?

It’s in the getting out of bed.

It’s in the walking to the bus stop.

It’s in the stopping for milk on the way home.

It’s in the folding the shirts and matching the socks.

It’s in the driving to practices and picking up children.

It’s at the dinner table and helping decisions of what to wear for picture day at school.

It’s raising your hand in the classroom or speaking up in the board room or on the zoom call.

It’s going to the meeting.

It’s taking the phone call.

It’s taking the risk.

It’s saying yes.

It’s saying no.

It’s in the showing up, in the fire swamp that chisels out the channel for which we are charting.

It’s in the small moves, in the forging forward within the little moments.

That’s where the masterpiece of your life is made.

The small strokes…that’s what makes the best pictures and stories…that builds the best life…one small move at a time.

So friend…reach out and grab hold of the light and walk in the Way of the moment you are in.

Because in this moment…

there is a small move to be made.

Let’s go make it.

My Aunt Jeanie was a realtor.

She was a Mom of 4, spent many years working in the jewelry industry, and was an active volunteer with her church among other organizations near and dear to her.

It was once she became a realtor, that she really hit her career stride.

In short?

She was amazing.

Anytime that my Aunt Jeanie had a settlement for a client on a new home, she would wear her red high heels…aka Ruby Slippers to the closing.

And like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, she would tell her new home-owner clients:

“There’s no place like home.”

And now?

My cousins and Uncle have decided that for her funeral next this week, they will wear red shoes to celebrate her…and her new home.

Isn’t that perfect?

As for me?

When I laced up my sneakers this morning to take a run and clear the noise…

I was met face to face, with what I do at the very end of every run.

The time during my last few strides…where I would push harder, run faster…

and pray.

At the end of every run, I prayed for my Aunt…for her total and complete healing from the top of her head to the soles of her feet.

And today?

I exchanged my prayer for healing, for my praise to Jesus.

For bringing her home…and healing her in heaven.

You were right Aunt Jeanie…

There’s no place like home.

Sweet friend…

May we make the small moves as we hold out for Heaven…together.

Living on a prayer,

Heather

This post is dedicated to Aunt Jeanie, my Uncle Tim, (my Aunt Jeanie’s High School Sweetheart), and my dear cousins and their families. I love you so much.