September

A new month and a new year.

This past Monday we celebrated your passing. A handful of friends and your mom made the hike up to the base of Prime Rib and commemorated you. We scattered some of your ashes and thought about what amazing person you are.

The deep pain that encompassed the week has lessened and I can breath and sleep normally again. I know your absence will always lay heavy on my heart but it feels like I've gotten a little closer to acceptance of you being gone. It happened organically and I'm thankful for it.

So what does the next little bit have in store? Still finding my way and figuring that out. But I feel like I've taken some steps forward in my grieving process.

At times I feel like I've lost my connection to this world. My link, my fortress has been disrupted and now I find myself questioning my decisions and think about what I think what others think far too much. I look around Ryan's work area - where he spent a far amount of his time at home and I can't help but feel a big empty place in my heart and in my home.

Picking up the pieces after his tragic accident has taken a while. There were some low moments, some deep depression and panic feelings of not being able to come out the other side. I still feel them just not as frequently as they used to come.

I've also learned how to escape them - to seek refuge in cycling and other activities. But I still can come full circle and bawl my eyes out with the best of them and mourn how much of my life is gone and just memories.

I'm starting to feel a tinge of anger coming on. How could he be so selfish? But then the moment I utter such words, I quickly ban them from my consciousness. How can I be mad at someone for following their passion? People get hit by walking off the corner of a street - so his exit out of this world was at least doing something he loved.

Wow. A full year has come and gone. It seems so long yet so short at the same time. He was loved, that's for sure. And I know he knew that.

Lately I've been feeling a really strong wave of grief. Where it's the first thing I think of when I wake up in the morning and the last thing on my mind as I go to sleep. I suppose it was triggered from hanging out with a bunch of couples at a wedding shower last night. It made me realize how much of an amazing relationship Ryan and I had. To have known that kind of love is really remarkable. But it also aches with a vengeance when I realize how much I miss him.

It gets to the point where I stop communicating. I can't talk. I can't bring myself to think of what to say - so I get really quiet. I hate to make people uncomfortable and think that by saying something it will. I've learned that I just have to roll with the punches.

Oh how I miss him.

Is it strange that I think about death more now? That I wonder if today will be my day through some strange accident? That maybe my fate is getting near? I know, those are terrible thoughts. But I can't help but think them.

I miss you Ryan. A lot.

I am so thankful for my tribe of people who support me. And I'm so thankful that Trish has a tribe to support her as well. We are so very lucky.

I watched a home video with you in it this morning. We were wrestling at my mom's house and she made a comment early on, "one day these videos will be priceless!" And they are, they are.

I watched another video at Christmas time. We were sitting around the table, exchanging gifts and you were giving mom a silly glass shoe shaped bottle with lotion inside. You had carefully wrapped it and she didn't want to open it. Watching you interact and talk has made me realize how much I'm forgetting about you already. It's scary.

I've also been feeling like I might want to move out of the house. I'm not sure when - or where - but I feel so consumed here that eventually I can picture starting my life some where new. That's a really scary thought though.

As the year mark approaches, I find my thoughts with you more and more. What would we be doing now? What adventures would await us?

Thinking of you

I never really stopped thinking about you. Just some days are easier than others. Some days I'm able to immerse myself in what I'm doing so I shut out the constant ache. But usually I wake up in the mornings and you're the first thing on my mind. This morning I could feel you. I want to have a dream about you so bad - but haven't in months.

I finally built up enough courage today to call the sheriff's department to find out where exactly they located your body. I don't know why that matters so much to me - other than I want to go where you last were. I want to be there. I want to pay tribute to you.

One year is rapidly approaching. One year. I can't believe it.

I find myself struggling with the concept of having the capacity to love someone as much as I loved you. For fear of losing it, I suppose. A rational fear at first but in reality an unrealistic one.

Every time I hear an old song, it transports me to memories I have with you. How at the time I soak in everything that's around me... live in the moment and try to commit it to memory. Boy am I glad I did. I'm afraid of losing those memories. Afraid of forgetting how you smiled or your embrace. But I can't think about it too long - otherwise a flood of tears and a puddle of emotions will come streaming out.