Grief pushes you to look for hope for signs and mine have come in threes.

A few days after my beloved dog Stanley left, I had neither the interest nor inclination to go out to my garden and tend my plants. They could fend for themselves.

But at Stanley’s nudging- yes he still talks to me daily in his distinctive Noo Yawwk accent- I eventually did go outside and suddenly I was surrounded by a trio of small white/yellow butterflies hovering and surrounding me, fluttering their wings making themselves known.

I have had 3 yellow labs -my three sons – and I felt they were all together.

Then one little white butterfly broke from the trio and stayed with me. I was certain this was Stanley.  Every day now when I am sad I walk outside and like magic he is right there flying in front of me, circling around me, comforting me just as he did in life.

Three’s Company

Threes have figured in my life before.

Several years ago, when I returned home from the cemetery after my mother died,  I paced my patio in sorrow.

My eyes cast downward at the pavement there appeared three pansies growing between the cracks of the bricks, pansies not planted, pansies that were not there that morning.

Pansies with their sweet smiling-like faces,  were my mother’s all-time favorite flower. Immediately I felt this trio was my Mother, her sister, my Aunt Judy, and my grandmother. All together once more.  In that moment  I knew they all appeared to let me know all was ok.

Signs all all around us, we just need to learn to communicate.Tto look and listen in a different way.

It is available to all who grieve. Our loved ones are only gone from our sight.