Page 17 - 2018 Spring Issue

The Wisdom of Darcie Sims • Follow my dreams instead of just dreaming them a single day. If you are not happy with your life, your home,

your job, begin to work towards finding something that
• Relax more
A New Season, A New Way of Seeing • Sit DOWN makes your spirit soar. Life is simply too precious to waste
in wishing it were something else.
• Tell people I love them NOW
Live your life in celebration and gratitude of those who
• Be sad when I am, happy when I am
Spring is the season of shifting, sorting and cleaning house. The time to say I LOVE have so lovingly shared their life with you. Cherish those
Spring brings with it a sense of renewal, a sense of wanting YOU is NOW. The time • Try to just BEING, not moments you spent
to lighten the load, clear the air and simplify living. It’s a to settle the argument is always DOING Cherish those moments you spent together and live your new
time to clear away the baggage of winter’s grief and to shed NOW. The time to give a • Tell people I love them life now with a renewed
the overcoat that seemed to shelter us from the pain. hug, a kiss, a handshake, NOW together and live your new life now commitment to living as
an encouragement is fully as possible.
Spring is the time when we get a new sense about the cycles Someone you knew, liked with a renewed commitment to
of life. When tulips bloom, trees bud and the garden begins NOW. The time is NOW or loved has died. You did It is acknowledging and
to awaken, there comes a change in perspective. We may and now I want to take not. Whatever the reasons living as fully as possible. living the pain that brings
be able to see things in a new light, with new vision, with the time. Funny how for this turn of events, you forth the energy and
a clarity that can only be borne in the fires of loss. We will that works. are have the opportunity to strength to allow hope
never go back to being who we were, but we can establish When you have too change your life to better and healing to return. No
a new sense of self as we work through our grief. We can little time, it seems an reflect your dreams, passions and ambitions. Take a look at matter where you are, no matter what memories you carry
create a “new normal” as we learn to adapt to the changing impossible task to grab who you are, what you are doing, why you are doing it and with you, may love be what you remember the most.
demands of grief. We can get through this time of sorrow, more. When you have begin to make the changes you want in order to live the life
but we will not get over it. too much, it seems an you want to be living instead of the one you are enduring. The late Darcie Sims wrote hundreds of articles over the years on grief and
impossible task to spend loss which have been extremely popular and shared in hundreds of TCF
We simply learn to look at things differently in the early If you still love your work or your home or your daily life, publications. We Need Not Walk Alone is proud to honor her by featuring
light of spring. it. The time to live is NOW. take renewed pleasure in the small moments that make up selections of her work in a column titled “The Wisdom of Darcie Sims.”
The death of a loved one teaches us to embrace the I want to live my life with as few regrets as possible. So,
moments of our life rather than waste them in search of from now one, I’m going to:
tomorrow. Grief is a thief, stealing away energy and time • Tell people I love them NOW
and I no longer want to be a victim of anything. • Open all presents NOW

There is so little time in life, when you really think about it. • Eat chocolate once a day
I no longer want to waste any of it. Sometimes I forget and • Exercise daily, but give up being guilty if I don’t
I get caught up in all the “little stuff”, like schedules, and • Give up being guilty about anything
chore lists and meetings and appointments.
• Dance more
Then I need to step back, take a breath and slow myself • Learn to play the banjo
down. Then and only then, can I begin to hear the new
rhythms of whoever I am becoming. I am forever changed • Tell people I love them NOW
because someone touched my life. I want to remember that- • Keep my TO DO LIST under control
always! • Read more

The lessons of our losses cannot be ignored nor negated. • Listen more, talk less
They simply are too expensive. I no longer want to count • Eat vegetables once a day (but not spinach or beets)
what I have lost. I want to acknowledge the blessings of the • Wear comfortable clothes
springs that I did spend with my loved one.
• Give up panty hose
I do not want to cloud the joy of our life together with a • Tell people I love them NOW
long list of things that I didn’t say, things I didn’t do, things I
didn’t mean. • Finger paint
• Hug the grandchildren, my spouse, my children
The line between the living and the dead is so thin that it is © Sandra Cunningham / stock.adobe.com
not visible, but it separates those who are moving forward • Run through rain puddles
and those who are standing still in grief and regret. I will no • Bake cookies
longer live my life so that I am building up a bank of regrets • Tell people I love them NOW
that will have to be paid at the end of a loved one’s life. • Dream more, worry less

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