Anticipatory Grief

Anticipatory grief and update that is today’s phrase and let’s break it down:

Grief is Captain Obvious which goes hand-in-hand with love. When something you dearly love is gone or stops or is taken away or moves to forever (verb of choice),…. Then there is grief!

I had grief when I could no longer play my trombone after my October 19, 2019 central retinal vein occlusion (a CRVO) and I agreed when I could no longer run around to referee Basketball after 52 years (I started reffing at age 12) because it had been so much fun running around & yelling at people and being paid. I’ve grieved when SGI took away my license (risk of seizure - which I’ve never had) and I can no longer drive myself where I’d like to go when I would like to go.

There’s so much degree in grief, but we can also not stay in grief. It is not healthy now for the anticipatory part: anticipatory is when you anticipate an event in which in this case is, you can also anticipate joy like at Christmas when you’re going to be with family and friends and special foods, you could anticipate a wedding and anticipate the birth of a child and there’s so much you can anticipate with joy.

I look forward to every day when I wake up and I thank God that I can draw another breath too. It can bring me joy today. There’s lots of things which could bring me joy today. My friend from Edmonton - Echo - is coming to visit from Alberta. We’re going out on a pedicure with Bridgette and Ralph Leibel too. I’m going to take care of my toenails that I cannot manage as much as I used to.

So find your joy each day: maybe it’s you donating a book to a little lawn library that can bring joy and maybe it’s making a new recipe and I have recipes on my blog for you to view. Maybe it’s phoning a friend that you haven’t spoken to in a while and just saying hi, thinking of you or making a time to meet up with a friend.

Perhaps there’s someone else that you can do something with for your anticipatory joy.

Meanwhile, my family I continue to live in my anticipatory grief, and we look forward to something each week to bring us love so this is what the anticipatory joy is in which we’re living in now; God bless you all.