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I just applied for acceptance to the 2024-2025 Art Exhibit at the Minnesota Zoo, in cooperation with the Hanifl Arts organization. This is my first art exhibit, and I am anxious to hear whether I've been accepted or not. I've not had much luck with Gallery Exhibits as the competition is fierce and space limited to but a few. Still, the process of application for acceptance brings a great deal of HOPE. My husband Mark also applied. We are very hopeful.

Hope is a great thing! "Overall, hope is beneficial to our well-being. Hope encourages us to persist, even though we may be facing setbacks. Hopeful individuals are more likely to frame difficulties as challenges, rather than threats. This enables them to experience setbacks as less stressful and draining." - Author unknown

Mark and I attempt to discover the Hidden Beauty in our photography, and share it with others to bring them, well... HOPE. Our mission is to Inspire - Motivate - Transform. That's our mission. By displaying our photographic art online, in Galleries or Exhibits, we ultimately hope it brings a sense of wonder, delight, mystery, beauty and joy.

So, if we are accepted in this year's exhibit, I'll be sure to invite you to attend. Who knows... it could bring you a bit of hope in your life as well.

Peace.

I have just passed the 26th year of missing my son, Adam Triplett.

He was a pilot and flight instructor. He died while giving a lesson to a student. He experienced an engine problem and wasn’t able to survive when they landed. Adam was only 23 and married just 3 short months. He was the kind of kid that everyone loved the moment they met him.

I would like to share some insights that I have learned over the past quarter century and hope there is something that helps you on your grief journey, if you're on one.

First, I learned that I wasn’t crazy when I couldn’t remember the smallest things that first year, and beyond. I called it “cotton brain.” What helped me was to start writing in a journal. When sleep wouldn’t come, I would write to Adam. I poured out my heart about how much I missed him, how angry I was that the plane failed to perform to keep him safe. I told him about my day, all the little things that I would have told him if he were sitting next to me. And most of all I told him over and over that I loved him and missed him.

Another thing was to acknowledge my grief, give myself grace to grieve my huge loss. I couldn’t worry about what others thought if I showed my sorrow. I had to let go of the “advice” I received from others. I also found that some of my friends couldn’t handle being around someone so sad, so they left. I needed to find new friends that “got it.” Compassionate Friends was a good resource.

A friend that had a couple of years into the grieving the death of her daughter gave us invaluable advice. She told me, “You can’t lean on a broken fence and you and Mark, (my husband), are broken.” That’s when we began looking for a grief counselor to help us each navigate through our grief rather than expect help from each other. I highly recommend doing the same. It is a huge relief to be able to share anything on your heart with someone and to not be judged, but instead just listened to. Not everyone finds the one that will work for them right away. I think that if the first one doesn’t work out, keep looking until you find one is that does, sort of like trying on a pair of shoes! You rarely find the right ones that fit with the first pair you try on.

Soon I realized how important it was to take care of myself, not only mentally but physically too. In those first months I could have cared less about my well-being. But I knew from resources that I read that if I didn’t, I could become a statistic that affects so many because of the impaired immune system. Illness can be one, also accidents increase causing some nasty physical consequences, sometimes for a lifetime. Did you know that when we experience a death of a loved one, it is a brain injury? Because of this we don’t think rationally when it comes to taking care of ourselves, but our traumatized brain needs us to. Going for a walk is a great stress reliever or take some “me” time to just sit outside and listen to the birds. It can give a much-needed break for your mind and body. And sometimes we just need to have a good cry. It releases so much tension that builds up.

Another great help is to laugh. It is natural to feel like we shouldn't because we are somehow not missing our kids if we do, but it's not at all the truth. Nothing could make us miss them any less. Try tuning in to a classic Carol Burnett show. It's so good for the soul to laugh even for a moment. I learned that I needed the laughter as much as feeling the grief of missing Adam in order to have healthy healing.

And my final insight and the most important one for me was to not only look at my loss, but also count the blessings that our beautiful children left us. The most wonderful way to honor them is to go on living. To say their names and to share our stories. If we do that, we could be helping another hurting heart because we "get it." I look back at those first entries in my journal and see how far I have come and know that although I didn’t believe I would survive, I did! I miss my son and always will, but I have found joy in life again. I can talk about Adam now and smile at the precious memories that we shared.

Photography has been a wonderful, stabilizing event for me, allowing me to see, create and inspire - making the world a better place, one photograph at a time.

Peace