{"id":1124,"date":"2017-04-01T11:11:48","date_gmt":"2017-04-01T15:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/?p=1124"},"modified":"2017-04-01T08:27:45","modified_gmt":"2017-04-01T12:27:45","slug":"seeing-and-being-seen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/?p=1124","title":{"rendered":"Seeing and being seen"},"content":{"rendered":"

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One of the most challenging parts of life now is to be in social situations. Ironically, being in community is also incredibly fulfilling. How can this be?<\/p>\n

Even the idea of going to a gathering, a party, an event can trigger me. What will be stirred when I am around others? Which memories will bubble up? How will I handle my emotions?<\/p>\n

On the other hand, it is clear that the community that is breathing oxygen into me; I am being carried. How could this occur, if I were to grieve alone?<\/p>\n

When Hannah invited me to the high school musical, I faced a difficult decision. It is truly a tragic reminder to be among Maya\u2019s friends. Some were friends since the time they were in our wombs. \u00a0When Maya died, time froze. The life of Maya here on this earth stopped. Yet here we are, on the cusp of one and a half years since her passing. The sun continues to rise and set, the seasons change, and Maya\u2019s friends are growing. They are singing and dancing on stage and there are even talks about college.<\/p>\n

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\nI chose to go. A variety of emotions flooded me as I watched the performance; it is astonishing to witness these teens shine. What was really the most meaningful experience for me was the time I spent after the show. One by one, I connected with Maya\u2019s peers, the actors and audience members. I looked in their eyes. I saw them and they saw me. Fully.<\/p>\n

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\nWith the embraces was such tenderness. I was able to support them, hold them and share my pride in the great job that they did. They expressed such happiness to see me. I know that as they saw me, they saw Maya. As I saw them, they too, were a window to Maya. She surely was with us.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Those eyes….all of the photos were from a trip we took to Quebec in December, 2006<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most challenging parts of life now is to be in social situations. Ironically, being in community is also incredibly fulfilling. How can this be? Even the idea of going to a gathering, a party, an event can trigger me. What will be stirred when I am around others? Which memories will bubble…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gifts-since"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p720L0-i8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1124"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1267,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124\/revisions\/1267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}