Water

Water is essential to life as we know it. We all know that and since the challenge word for today was "Water", and there were so many choices; ocean, lake, river, pond, it had to be significant.

Today marks 11 months since my daughter lost (or won) her battle with addiction, depending on how you look at it I guess. 11 months ago, I couldn't imagine getting to this point in "grief land", but here it is 11 months later and I have learned so much. I've learned that recovery from addiction to heroin is extremely low (less than 10%). I have also learned that there are many gifts to be taken from this tragedy if we care to find them. The gifts of patience, tolerance, forgiveness and resilience to name a few. There is memory, sweet memory of life before addiction. Fortunately for her, her addiction was relatively short-lived (2 years) so there are many memories. The gift of vulnerability too. All of these add texture and new meaning to life, shedding the "small stuff" and looking at the "big picture". I do believe Sumner is not very far away from me now and that one day we will be together again and on good days that is all I need.

This photo was taken at a land conservation area very near our home. A place Sumner would escape to from her earlier years when life became too difficult and she needed to clear her head, to her most recent years. At some point in the next year, we would like to place a bench near this spot, one dedicated to her memory where anyone could go and sit and enjoy the Water, the wildlife and the peace.

DDWSept13