Airing the Box Just a Little

A few weeks after we laid her precious self in the ground, our family received the news we'd be making the move to California in a year.

Fourteen months after that, we loaded our family of four onto a plane, and we didn't look back. That was almost six years ago.

This past weekend, I was visiting back east with a sweet, sweet friend from another lifetime ago. She asked me if I still blogged. I hesitated, and answered honestly, "Well, I kinda feel like I've lost my voice for a season, but I do every now and then."

Innocently, she replied, "Oh. Was it Savannah that made you lose your voice?"

I was instantly confused. "No. My Savannah is fine, I think....oh wait....you mean......Savannah Veale." And instantly my eyes welled with tears as the realization of what she was asking doused me like a bucket of ice-cold water. It had been almost six years since someone had spoken her name to me.

My friend was kind. Immediately she apologized, hugging my neck, as we awkwardly tried to change the subject, but I was done. It was all I could do from that moment to keep the tears inside my eyelids.

You see, when I moved to California, no one knew me here. No one knew my story. No one knew Savannah Veale. Her name was not mentioned or brought up in conversation. There were no knowing eyes and kind smiles. I only had to share pieces of that story with the ones closest to me who happened to ask at the right time on the right days, and even then, they didn't know. I don't let them see how much I still grieve.

But I miss her. I still do. I hadn't realized that somewhere along the way in the past six years, I had processed enough to put her in a box on the decorative shelf of my life. Anyone looking close enough would see it is a lovely box that is cherished because it's there, not hidden, but it's also not a focal point or a conversation piece. It obviously has great sentimental value, but it's not something anyone would recognize or care to ask about.

Yet she is right there on the shelf of my life, and when her box gets opened whether on purpose or by surprise, the pain and joy that flow from her memory are deeply overwhelming.

When my friend said her name, one part of me wanted to stay and keep talking, comforted by conversation of her with someone who knew her, yet there was an equal part of me that wanted to run away and avoid the inevitable tears and pain that would follow with the joy of remembering her.

And so it is with those who grieve. I'm not sure keeping Savannah Veale in an emotional box in my life is healthy, but I also will never throw it out. I'm not sure airing it is healthy all the time either. I'm not sure anything about grief makes any sense. Some friends I know post the state of their grieving mind every day on Facebook. You never have to wonder how they're feeling. Others never share anything. at all. ever. It's like that part of their lives died with the loved one that is gone. And then there are all of us somewhere in the middle of that spectrum, wondering if anyone knows, and if anyone really even cares.

So since I'm having a hard time putting her back in that box that got opened by surprise, this is me, airing it out a little. I miss her. I miss her long lanky arms and the hugs she would give, her mischievous smile and the way she always made you feel like she was up to something. I miss the Miss Savannah bag of candy that use to sit on top of our refrigerator, only to be given out by her when she came to babysit. I miss her popping into my home unexpectedly and making all of us smile, or when she'd come looking for advice in a very sideways don't-tell-me-what-to-do-but-I'm-asking-anyway kind of way. I miss her voice. I miss her.

I replay the day she died and our last conversation on the phone in my mind more times than anyone would ever know. The verse God gave me after she died is still the one I repeat like counting sheep on sleepless nights: Isaiah 26:3 "You will keep in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You because they trust in You."

Which always brings me right back to my Jesus. Because He has kept that promise time and time and time again. My mind finds perfect peace when it focuses on Him and trusts His ways, trusts Him--completely, fully, and unquestioningly.

I will never know why she had to die. I will never understand.  But Jesus does. My Heavenly Father, HER Heavenly Father knows and understands, and the acceptance that this is enough--that God knowing and me NOT knowing is enough--this truth begins to settle her back into the box, and His promised peace helps close the lid once again as I choose to trust His heart for me and for her.

I hope one day that box becomes a conversation piece in my life because her story is now forever woven into mine, and while time does not heal all wounds it does allow for the acceptance to grow of those wounds, and with acceptance of the co-mingling of the joy and the pain comes a freedom to share it, remember it, pick it up and show it to others without fear or shame or guilt.

This box on my shelf is a testimony to the peace of God that passes all understanding. It is the catalyst to an empathy for others and their pain that I could never have manufactured on my own. It is a gift I never wanted, but will not waste or hide. My prayer is one day I won't have to keep the lid on that box shut so tight, that my emotions surrounding her will be able to ebb and flow more freely, safely, slowly, like the tinkling music of a gentle stream, not quite so violently like a rogue wave, pulling me back under and spinning me in the washing machine of grief. One day. Maybe.

Maybe if time doesn't heal all wounds, maybe it does slow the roller coaster of grief. I don't know. We will see. Time will tell.

In the meantime, open your eyes. Those who grieve are all around you. Be gentle with yourself and with others, friends. There are so many stories people just don't tell. Grateful my Jesus likes to hear them all, and when I don't want to tell them, he already knows my heart. Here's praying someone notices the sentimental boxes you keep on the shelf of your life and has the wisdom to gently ask to hear your story because telling it, airing that box just a little, really is a comfort and an agent to healing and freedom.