The Adapted Life
Welcome to The Adapted Life Podcast, a dedicated space for those who have faced profound challenges, particularly those who have navigated the journey of having a child born with severe disabilities. This podcast serves as a sanctuary for connection, offering support and strategies for building resilience when life unfolds differently than we envisioned.
In this series, I share my personal journey with my disabled son, detailing the ups and downs we experienced together. Our story is one of love, hardship, and ultimately, adaptation. But now, my focus has shifted to the complex and often lonely path of adapting to life after the loss of my son.
Grief is a powerful, consuming force that changes everything. It can feel isolating and overwhelming, reshaping how we perceive the world around us. Through this podcast, I hope to explore what it means to grieve, to honor the memory of my son, and to find ways to move forward while carrying his spirit with me.
We'll discuss practical approaches to adapting to loss, including how to find joy in small moments, the importance of community support, and strategies for navigating everyday life when the ground beneath you has shifted. This journey is deeply personal, yet universal in its themes of love, loss, and resilience.
Join me as we create a conversation around grief and adaptation, turning our experiences into pathways for healing and connection. Every story shared strengthens our community and reminds us that while loss is an inevitable part of life, we have the capacity to adapt and find new meanings, even amidst heartache.
The Adapted Life
Even Though I Grieve ...
Even though I Grieve
Even though I grieve
I can smile at your photo
Even though I cry
I can feel grateful
Even though I am broken
I can limp along today
Even though I miss you
I can create new memories now
Even though you were always here
I know that you are gone
Even though my house is quiet
I can still feel, and hear you
Even though I grieve you son
My love spans all time and space.
I will always be your Mom.
You will always be my Daniel.
Even though I grieve and hurt
I am healed by memories of you.
Dear listeners and friends,
This is the idea behind this episode .... I AM 213 DAYS INTO THIS GRIEF....
So, I say to myself, each day. “Wake up. Breathe. Be grateful. Check in with yourself. What should I do next?” Here I am. Back in the comfort of my own words and hoping that somehow, I can find others who are learning to live with loss, and grief. Are you there? How can I help? How can we help each other? And I stop, make myself a coffee from my Nespresso machine, take the dog out, and hug my husband. Then I wonder if I am having attention deficit because I forgot what I originally intended to do before I started making my coffee. Ever have that happen to you?
OK. Keep going Julie. BREATHE!! Grief is like a getting a new skin. A transformation into a new human being whose heart has been broken beyond repair. The pain just becomes part of everything. By osmosis grief enters every cell of your physical human existence and forms a new person. It is this new you, that supports how you cope. It is the new way you interpret the world. It is you transformed in how you exist in relationships.
As I have taken minute by minute, stepping along with this new " me " in my life after Daniel, figuring out what to do now has been really hard. I feel like a tree with no trunk and just a lot of branches floating in the wind. Nothing is grounded. Nothing is landing.
But here I am, and this is now episode 30 of a podcast project that I had hoped would help people who are caregivers, that has turned into "People who are caregivers whose person died".
Please let me know if there is anything I say that connects with you, or make suggestions to help me. I am so grateful to be here now. And I hope you are too!!!
Much Love,
Julie A. Hasselberger
https://www.etsy.com/shop/DanielsSpecialArt?ref=seller-platform-mcnav
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQr7Ot0J0o6_gRnG_fJvzDg
