A Week
by Ashley Weeks Cart
It’s been a week.
A week with a capital WTF?
Busy. Filled with highs and lows. Inspiration and heartache. I heard inspired, moving speeches and gut-wrenching, world-stopping stories of loss. There were projects and deadlines and panels and daily routines. There were files unsaved and restored in the wee hours of the morning. There was a baby dispensing bile all over the floors. There was celebratory news. And devastating news. There were sisters squabbling and pulling hair and sisters exchanging dialogues of I love you’s and kisses.
And I wouldn’t trade any of it, especially not that vomit-soaked hair tucked up in the crook of my neck, as I reflected on my overwhelming, overflowing life.
A friend in our community delivered a stillborn baby this week. And I’ve found myself revisiting my father’s words here. And once again feeling grateful. Stupidly, arbitrarily fortunate. And so achingly grateful.
I am so so so sorry for your friend’s loss. When we grieve with our friends, we grieve with them as mothers, as sisters, as daughters. When they lose a child, we know that all of humanity weeps when such a heartbreak is so deep. And we know that we would gladly run through Hell if it meant we could make things better for them, bring back the child that they miss so. So it is no wonder that you feel so grateful for the vomit, the ugly and all the mis-steps in your life. Embrace them and love them and I hope it helps you carry your friend through this dark time in her life.xxoo
Thank you, Becca. That means so very much.