Give me one reason to stay here, And I'll turn right back around!!!

When I grow up, I want to be Tracy Chapman. Whenever her music begins to wail on the radio, I have to pull over. Her voice this morning was "a sign." You have to look for signs all the time, and this morning she was IT!!!
A teacher at our school lost her twenty-five year old son yesterday. We found out late in the day, and my knees buckled. Immediately I began to revisit Ward's death, and everything that this family was going through. I'm so sorry for anyone to feel this pain, and I can do nothing, right now, to help her. I read today that recovery begins when you have healed enough from your own loss to share your experiences or coping techniques with others in their grief process. I am not healed, but I do know what this mother is facing, maybe later I can help her? Right now, I'm frightened at how quickly my grief can surface. I know grief rests on my shoulder, and little things can cause it to gobble me up. This mother's pain and loss, takes me to my knees. I wonder if they have gone to the funeral home yet, if she has tried to take a shower, and fell to the floor? I hope she has had visions of her son all around the house, and in nature, you have to look. I hope she has strength, and remembers to breathe. My heart is broken for this family, and this child who is gone from them. Living with grief is what "they" tell you to do, but I can't tell her that, right now she has died inside, and can only hear her heart beating, letting her know she is still in this world.
I upped my meds this morning, and thanked the lord for medicine that can take the edge off this blade of grief.
I began my journey to work, praying that I would be an instrument of peace and strength, when Tracy Chapman came on the radio!!!! Give me one reason to stay here, And I'll turn right back around!! My smile was WIDE, and I began my car dance. There is a reason to keep going. Life is the reason, love is the reason, Ward is the reason, this mother's new grief is the reason, My students, and friends, and loving family. Tracy Chapman, you turned my day around!!!