Sorrow To Joy

“Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.”
― Rumi

I think that this the last day of what I consider one of the most challenging years of my life, I am hoping that the above quote from Rumi is true. I am hopeful for things to take the place of the sorrow that I have been feeling. Not necessarily better, but different. I will never ever feel nothing but gratefulness for having my beloved Abby in my life for 8 years and 61 days. I wish I could have had 80 years and a million days with her but it wasn't meant to be. I know Abby would not want me to be sadden by her loss. I think she would prefer I celebrate her life and I will. I am glad to have Annabelle bring in a youthful happiness of life into this house again. I believe that she and I were meant to find one another, and that's the way that was meant to be. The old cliche about life working in mysterious ways is undoubtedly true. We are better off allowing things to happen and accepting whatever they are. So, I shall try very hard to leave the sadness behind in 2013 and move onward in 2014. I am sure my tears will still fall and that I will continue to miss the physical presence of my beloved Abby, but I know she is still here, only different. She still communicates with me, just differently. I guess she lets me know something when she thinks I most need it, and that has been most true in something we will share later this week. But, I have no doubt she is here, and that she always will be. I will continue to share her because she still has stories to tell, and because I love talking about her, even if I shed a few tears in the process. Abby I'll always always love you to the Moon and back, always. That will always be our special mantra.
So Farewell 2013.
Welcome 2014.