Capture Your Grief - Day 28, Reach Out

The prompt for today says:

Our world is hurting so badly right now. We need to give out more love, there needs to be more acts of compassion and kindness. I always found that when I was feeling my worst in grief, the only thing that would help was if I did something for someone else. It helped to pull me out of some very dark places. Today do something compassionate and kind for someone else. It might be as simple as lending a helping hand to someone in need, or making a donation to a worthy cause. Set an intention to spread as much love as possible today.

I had no idea what the prompt for today was when I sat down to write. The last few weeks have been pretty tough for us and the thought of sitting down to focus on our losses was just one thing too many for me to face. Today I don't feel the apprehension and sadness that has been following me around. I can't even say exactly why, as the last two days have probably been two of the worst for a long time.

When I first saw the prompt I thought about it in the sense of reaching out to others who have experienced the loss of a baby, or reaching out to family and friends and asking for help when you need it. The first is something I do willingly, the second, not so much as much of the heartache we continue to feel comes from the words and actions of our family and friends.

I guess my way of reaching out today is more of the first, and more focussed on the intention of this prompt. Our way of reaching out is to support sands.org.au. This amazing organisation offers support to parents facing miscarriage, stillbirth or new born death and was a place I turned to a lot in the weeks and months following our first miscarriage.

When we decided to have a go at starting our own business, we named it in honour of our angel babies and decided to donate 50% of all profits during the month our little one was due to Sands. On October 15th this year, as we lit a candle for our babies, we decided to permanently donate 5% of all our profits to Sands. We also have a downloadable print (about to be re-designed) that we donate 100% of the profits all year round.

If you want to check it out, here it is.

I don't know that it makes me feel any better to donate to such a great organisation. I'm happy that we are able to to, but at the same time, I can't help thinking that I wish I didn't even know they existed. I certainly had no idea two years ago.