"I Miss Laurie" is an Understatement

Anyone feel lonely? Saying "I miss Laurie" is kind of like saying "I'd be excited to see the Cubs win the World Series". Understatement of massive proportions. Based on the 33+ blog comments you have all sent based on my previous post, it's obvious there is more love out there, and more loss out there, than I even imagined.

Seriously, I had no idea that even Laurie's daily customers at Starbucks would miss her this much. Incredible.

My grief support group is going well. We're going through GriefShare, and it's not bad. Go check out their site at: GriefShare.org You can even get a daily grief support email (I just signed up today. They gave me some good advice yesterday on how to remedy loneliness:

1. Join a group of some kind (discussion, club, church, whatever) -- just connect
2. Take up a new hobby or learn a new skill
3. Reach out.
4. WARNING: Don't do too much. Too much is bad.

I think some of those suggestions might be good. Here's how I match up:

1. I'm in the support group at church. 4 weeks in, and it's helping.
2. I'm considering entering my first triathlon. (there, I said it. Gulp....) I ran a marathon in January, did the MS150 (180mile) bike ride in April, now maybe I'll target an Olympic distance triathlon in July or August. (1 mile swim, 25 mile bike, 6 mile run)
3. Next week I'll be in Costa Rica, serving others by building audio/video/lighting systems at 3-4 churches. This is so exciting -- a chance to do what Laurie did. I can't wait to see how I grow, change, learn from this experience.

I'd be curious to know how anyone else is dealing with their feelings of loneliness. Are the above suggestions really remedies, or just masks? Any thoughts would help.

greg

P.S. It was hard to sell my Cubs tickets for the 3-game series in Houston starting tomorrow. I am not going due to the Costa Rica trip. The Astros can't score a run if their life depended on it (see story), so if the Cubs just score 1 per game, it ought to be a 3-game sweep. ;-)