Fifteen years ago my life looked very different than it does today. I was a young mother of two beautiful boys, one six months, the other three years old. I had retired from my career as a corporate meeting planner and, like many other young moms, wondered what the next chapter of my life would look like. On August 16, 1996, the direction of my new life began to take form. It was on that day that my dad, at the age of 56, took his own life. My father’s suicide was and continues to be THE defining moment in my life; from that day forward, I have thought of my life as before and after that event.
As I approach the 15th anniversary of my dad’s death, it feels like a perfect time to share my story and how the beautiful and ancient practice of yoga has changed my life. As a result of many of those changes, I have been given the opportunity to share yoga with others as a healing tool in navigating the long and arduous journey through loss.
Today, I am a licensed social worker, a registered yoga teacher (RYT) through the Yoga Alliance, as well as a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT). I have been a volunteer with the Catholic Charities Program Loving Outreach for Survivors of Suicide (LOSS) since 1999 and an active community volunteer and speaker for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). I work as an advocate for grieving children, families, and communities through my work with Willow House, and was instrumental in creating a program specifically for families with children grieving the death of a parent or sibling by suicide. At the inception of this program at Willow House in 2004, there were no other services or programs available in the Chicago area for this specific population. So while I would never say that my father’s death in its raw and most painful form was a “gift,” I do believe that from that experience of that particular “box full of darkness,” to quote Mary Oliver, I have and continue to receive gifts of beauty and hope daily. Continue reading
