All Blog Postings by Mary
Home Sweet Home
Archive notice: This is a historical post from Mary’s years of blogging. Some older posts may mention products, courses or shop items that are no longer available, as Mary now focuses her time and energy on supporting widows inside her private Facebook community. The guidance and stories remain here as a free resource for widows.
For current ways to connect with Mary’s work, you can:
- Read her book on Amazon .
- Request to join her private Facebook group for widows .
For widows the empty place at the table and loneliness of a bed by themselves means that “Home Sweet Home” just doesn’t hold any meaning. Yet we all know that to lift our spirit we need to fill our space with objects that we care about.
Our surroundings are an expression of our inner state. We will find it hard to heal if our home is filled with piles of debris that overwhelms both our mind and our living space.
Honour your photos by displaying them on shelves and never clutter that space with anything but photos and photo binders. When you look at your home, what kind of feelings does it bring to mind? Do the things around you bring peace and hopefully some joy? If not, start by clearing a space, and add back a flower or keepsake that matters to you.
When you’ve made that one tiny change, you have taken a step forward, then make another and another. Then one day you’ll wake up to your, “Home Sweet Home” and in every way possible, you will be home.
This may sound silly but I want you to spend some quiet time with your “home”. Turn the phone off and try to really listen to what your home is saying about your life. Focus all your attention upon your home, and with loving respect ask it, “What are you trying to tell me?”
Now, I’m not recommending a spotless house where everything is perfect. I don’t want you stressing over tasks like vacuuming or changing the bed sheets on a specific day. Instead I want you to find a balance between clutter that holds you back and a place too perfect to be a “home”.
It’s hard to wrap our head around the fact that this isn’t a “shared home”, but it’s your home. You get to fill it with your version of life, just do it with a focus on the theme, “Home Sweet Home”.
A home isn’t just a place you live and go to at the end of your day. It’s a reflection of yourself that you carry with you no matter where you are. When you’re at home with where you live, you’re comfortable with who you are.
Design your “Home Sweet Home” to be the safe place where you can retreat from the outside world and recharge your spirit. Being home means being safe, alive and open to whatever is happening, even when life’s message isn’t what we want to hear.
Mary Francis, The Sisterhood of Widows
A widows home sweet home, the sisterhood of widows, widow support, grieving, how to grieve, grief, life of a widow, #thesisterhoodofwidows, #widow, #grief, #griefsupport, #widowsupport, #howtogrieve, #widowshelpingwidows