AUGUST 2026 - BREATHE!

We are now 2 weeks into August, and I'm doing my best to breathe just to get through the day without feeling like I need some oxygen! No joke, this has been the worst month of this summer, with high humidity, temps, and rain, plus thunderstorms, lightning, and unreal atmospheric pollution and toxic air everywhere I go! No exaggeration!

More states across the U.S. are reporting forest fires, and more are reporting poor air quality that is drifting from one side of the country to the other. Honestly, I've never had breathing problems ever! But now, I'm finding myself feeling more winded and tired than ever before, and I can only blame it on the poor air quality around me. I never really liked living under air conditioning day and night, and just today, on August 15th, I shut it off and opened my windows again to let the fresher air circulate through the house so I could breathe naturally not from artificial air.

You know, it's also getting my attention that I'm realizing that my emotions and feelings are heightened to the point of feeling sad about the weather and having to go it all alone without Mike. I don't think I would have focused as much on the air quality and how it made me feel if Mike were here. I realize now how much his presence and his attention to me buffered a lot of outside distractions and inconveniences away from me.

I'm also doing a lot more crying this month than other months where I may have a cry here and there a couple of times, but this month it's almost every day. I do have a couple of health issues too that have been diagnosed and are concerning and between that and the depressing weather I've not been my usual happy, chirpy self lately. I'm also thinking so much about others I know, like family, dear friends and relatives who've already transitioned and wondering how their new life is going in the eternal realm with the Lord.

I'm talking to God every single day and asking for his help to strengthen me and my faith, because I am truly grateful to Him for all that He's done for me....like sending me the greatest husband I could ever imagined or dreamed of. Like blessing me with 4 boys, 8 grands, and 5 greatgrands. So, then I think about all the other blessings and mercies that He bestowed on me so that I could live an abundant life like He intended for me and for all of us on this planet!

When I finish those talks with God and I reflect on his goodness, I have to also ask for His forgiveness for whining about the weather, when there are so many people suffering horribly in this world, and I feel somewhat ashamed for that. Everyday that the Lord allows me to wake up with full use of my faculties and limbs, I celebrate Him and thank Him for another opportunity to be better, to walk in His purpose for me and for His will to be done in my life that day.

Have you found any good ways to cope with your sorrows and pains of losing someone you deeply and truly loved? If so, please share them with us in this safe, secure, nonjudgmental community space for healing. We would love to hear from you. God's blessings and love, grace.