{"id":1324,"date":"2018-03-18T11:11:04","date_gmt":"2018-03-18T15:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/?p=1324"},"modified":"2018-03-18T10:45:41","modified_gmt":"2018-03-18T14:45:41","slug":"this-is-where-your-love-is-going","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/?p=1324","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThis is where your love is going\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Yes!\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s it!\u00a0\u00a0My friend understood me, and she got it!\u00a0\u00a0Let me wind the tape back for a minute to put it in context.\u00a0\u00a0Mathew and I have been devoting much time to The Maya Gold Foundation.\u00a0\u00a0This has not been the work of Mathew and me alone; that\u2019s for sure!\u00a0\u00a0It is really quite remarkable to witness all that the Foundation has accomplished in just over two years.<\/p>\n

Frequently, when talking about the work of the Maya Gold Foundation, kind and generous people respond, \u201cit\u2019s amazing how you have turned your grief into something so meaningful.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0We hear, \u201cwow, look at all the good that has come from your tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

I know in my heart of hearts that people really, truly mean well.\u00a0\u00a0But they don\u2019t get it.\u00a0\u00a0How could they?\u00a0\u00a0How could they possibly understand?\u00a0 I get it. \u00a0I understand that from the outside, our work with teens both locally and in\u00a0Nepal, seems to be a positive way to transform our grief.\u00a0\u00a0That makes perfect sense.<\/p>\n

When presented with this discussion (which happens frequently), I have wrestled with putting my feelings into words.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cNo!\u201d I feel like saying, \u201cthat\u2019s not it!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0I don\u2019t turn my grief into anything.\u00a0\u00a0My grief is my grief.\u00a0\u00a0I grieve fully.\u00a0<\/strong> Though the expression of grief will shift, I will carry it always. I can grieve and I can do good in the world.\u00a0\u00a0I can do good in the world in Maya\u2019s name.\u00a0\u00a0That does not change my grief.\u00a0\u00a0In writing these words, I sound angry.\u00a0\u00a0I am not angry.\u00a0\u00a0I just feel misunderstood.<\/p>\n

When I was trying to explain this to one friend last weekend, who lovingly shared her wonder in using our grief to do something good, Susan was glad to hear my words.\u00a0\u00a0She urged me to share my sentiments with others.\u00a0\u201cElise, we don\u2019t know!\u00a0\u00a0I have worked in a prison for years, yet I don\u2019t know what it is like to be imprisoned.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0I appreciated her encouragement.\u00a0 So here I am sharing.\u00a0\u00a0This is my truth.\u00a0\u00a0Another mom whose fifteen-year-old daughter took her life may have another truth.<\/p>\n

This evening, I had a conversation with a friend from childhood.\u00a0\u00a0I let her know that we will soon be heading to\u00a0Nepal.\u00a0\u00a0We will bring 15 teens.\u00a0\u00a0It had been Maya\u2019s vision to reduce trafficking in\u00a0Nepal, and yes, we are going in her name.\u00a0\u00a0Thank you, Fran!\u00a0\u00a0I felt as if you really understood me in your response, \u201cthis is where your love is going.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo from a “Heart of Gold Adventures” preparation meeting.\u00a0 Youth Ambassadors and their parents where present and all of the teens are getting ready for the trip next week.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes!\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s it!\u00a0\u00a0My friend understood me, and she got it!\u00a0\u00a0Let me wind the tape back for a minute to put it in context.\u00a0\u00a0Mathew and I have been devoting much time to The Maya Gold Foundation.\u00a0\u00a0This has not been the work of Mathew and me alone; that\u2019s for sure!\u00a0\u00a0It is really quite remarkable to witness all that…<\/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_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ripples-pearls-from-others"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p720L0-lm","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1324","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=1324"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1329,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1324\/revisions\/1329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}