Love and Grieving #microbloggingMonday

Today is the first birthday of the little boy, Flynn, who died this past summer.

I can't claim to know the pain of losing a child you've held in your arms, though I do know the pain of losing one you held in your heart. My fear was that my Blue Sunday would be forgotten, that that life would be meaningless. I've allowed that loss to change the way I interact with others. I try to be a kinder person- you never know how long you have- or those who surround you.

Flynn was a beautiful child, and had he gotten the opportunity, he would have been spreading love and kindness all on his own. Since he didn't get that chance for nearly long enough, we are doing it in his honor.

I ask you to think of him today, Be kind. You never know the situation of the stranger next to you. Let someone merge in front of you in traffic, ask someone how they are and listen, donate to a cause , hug someone who needs it or any one of a million other things that will make someone else's day just a bit brighter.

Another mother lost her child this morning. The former Miss New Jersey Cara McCollum died after a car accident at 24. In a statement about the death of her daughter her mother said "In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years"

I'd change it to: "In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life OF your years" We don't get choice over when our years end, and it isn't always possible to get the fullness of life in your years but those that go on can extend the years of life, enriching the world with the memory of the lost and improving things as they do so.