Lately I’ve been thinking about the why. Why did I write a book about my grief journey? What motivated me? Why, if it is painful to relive these memories, did I do it?
About six months ago, I saw this video:
Do yourself a favor and watch it. This video made a huge impact on me, as the need to understand your reasons for doing something became clearer to me.
My why? As I wrote before, thousands and thousands of incredible lives are snuffed out each year by overdoses. Beyond that cause of death, people die all the time, and all of us experience grief at some point, and I thought that maybe my experiences would help someone else feel that no matter how great the darkness they are feeling, no matter how profound the grief, finding hope and joy again is possible.
But truthfully, that wasn’t my only why. My other why is the subtitle of my memoir, Sam’s Love Story. Sam’s love shown from him all the time. He loved people, he could see the beauty in everyone he met, even when they couldn’t see it, or when society said that person was trash. Sam saw the wonder, and loved unconditionally. My why? I needed to show that sort of love is possible, and maybe right now, when the world seems to be struggling with even reaching the point of civility, let alone love, I needed to share a message that at the end of the day, what matters is how much love we have given.