The other day, I was in my car and a song came on – one of my favorites, but this one was being sung by a different artist – a very good singer, but it just wasn’t the same.  I try to find and follow all these little leads back to my Yvonne – sometimes I can get close to how she made me feel, but it’s just not the same.  For example, I can smell the cologne she used to wear, because she knew it was my fovorite – I kept it! – but it’s just not the same as it smelled on her.  And it certainly doesn’t make me feel the way I felt when she wore it.  Sometimes I think it’s probably better – easier for sure – to just not go there… because it’s just not the same.  Never will be, and that’s sad.

By way of this website, www.ChatWithHatch.com, I’m reaching out to you.  Many tell me that they read  this regularly, but I wonder if there are more of you out there.  My hope and desire is that you’ll help turn this monologue into the dialogue it was meant to be.  Actually, I want this to become a community-wide conversation about anything that grieves you, or us.  Grief is caused by so many things – not just death.  We all experience grief, practically constantly.  It seems to me that we should share each other’s grief, and help one another by telling what works, for us, and what doesn’t.  We can tell what we think, or feel, about something.  We may disagree, or challenge one’s thoughts and feelings.  This should help us to grow.  It should help our entire communtiy, and then some!  I would encourage you to ’forward’ this website to friends and family in other cities – come on folks… let’s really get this thing going!!!  Remember; you may remain anonymous, freeing you to say most anything that’s on your mind and in your heart!  If I don’t hear from you, I fear that I may not be reaching you…

I’ve got something in my eye, and no matter what I do, I can’t get it out.  It’s a little something I gotta live with, and it’s a big deal!  That’s what grief can be like.  Need I say more?  So what do you do?  You learn how to live with it – how to manage it.  It’s like pain management.  But like one little grain of sand that gets inside an oyster… yeah, it’s an irritant, but under the right conditions, it can turn into one amazing, pearl!  Those of us who have something in our eye… if we can survive it, perhaps it’ll spur us on to a thriving existence!