It’s a few days before Christmas and I just wanted to take this moment--
from my heart to yours—to wish you a very VERY Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays…  whatever that means to you!

I wish you many moments of joy. Sheryl Sandberg (COO Facebook, Author of Option B)
spoke of a gathering where they said, “All Feelings Welcome.” I think that’s wonderful.

I know that this is a hard time of year for some people. Please, ask for what you need,
​give yourself what you need. Have has much happiness as possible, despite all the rest.
Here I am in Muskoka (Canada) where it’s been snowing and we’ve been snowshoeing.
And now… it’s raining! Life is like that sometimes, isn’t it?

So all the very best, take good care of yourself and
here’s to much happiness in 2018!! 

As promised once a month I am sharing one of my 7 Take Aways for living life to
the fullest, learning to grieve and support others, and having “The Talk” about
end of life, long before it arrives and diffusing the fear.

This time I’m sharing Take Away #3; when someone is grieving… Just Show Up!
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “I don’t know what to do,
I don’t know what to say!” So we often avoid, don’t we? When someone is facing
a crisis, loss or someone they love died, it is awkward, it is uncomfortable.
We don’t know what to do. We don’t know what to say.

But the truth is, there is no magic formula. There is nothing we can say to fix it.
We have to allow grief. We have to feel it. It is the path to healing.
We think, “What if I remind them about what happened?” I promise, they haven’t forgotten.
It is so much better to acknowledge and just be there. Just Show Up!

How? Hug, text, sit silently, cry, walk their dog, call. Do something.
We feel so strongly and passionately about this message that we started the
I Just Showed Up Movement. I’m wearing my bracelet to remind me.
We don’t have to do anything magical. We don’t have to fix it. We just have to allow
our “human-ness!” Grief can be messy. Life can be messy. We need to be okay with that.
The truth? Grief shows no mercy. It arrives unannounced and uninvited.
It does not care what else you are going through. It does not care if you’ve had enough.
It’s a part of living and loving. But it’s worth it, and our hearts will heal (never the same, battered and scarred), if we learn to take good care of ourselves and each other.
And we learn to… Just Show Up!

www.ijustshowedup.com 
​
www.facebook.com/ijustshowedup

I just recorded my interview on Hunter’s Bay Radio with Frankie Picasso,
airing December 9th, 2017 at 8 am, then available on their podcast channel.

Frankie is one of my heroes. She is a Canadian Socialpreneur, Talk Show Host,
Champion for Change and has been helping people transform their lives for over 30 years.
She founded the Good Radio Network and she is Unstoppable!! Her Unstoppable brand
allows her to specialize in the impossible.

 She has done more in this lifetime than you can imagine, and had lost almost
everything in 2003, after a motorcycle accident. She was declared “catastrophic” which
means that more than 60% of her body has been injured. She spent months in the
hospital in pain, and lost most things in her life, except her spirit. She is unstoppable
and I am proud to share her story.

Frankie has now collaborated with Alex Okoroji, a Nigerian actress and founder of
The Naked Truth. Together they have created the “I Bared My Chest” movement,
where 21 women from around the world share their truth. This book will be
coming out soon!! I am so proud to be a part of it!

Please listen to our interview, check out www.frankiepicasso.com and
www.ibaredmychest.com and if you want to be inspired by someone, meet Frankie Picasso!