existing...that's how many live after loss....relearning how to breathe again---how to hold one's head up and push back the tears that lie waiting to fall....learning how to suppress the utter sadness...living in silence, holding back pain as the smiles we place on our faces fools nearly everyone...I don't have to pretend with him, nor he with I....together we can grieve...we can recant our tales....holler at the world, hold each other until each other's shirts are wet from tears....we can still say that it's not fair...we can talk about how much we loved him too---sometimes he and I can laugh and smile...as we remember the times before...our great loss, nothing's the same....nothing at all...we somehow how learned to live a different life...it's going on too....life...without him, unimaginably---walking by the old iron bridge the other night I looked down, I remember weeping desperately one day probably a month after Adam died...alone----like I was so often then, I wandered helplessly to the overlook, gazing down on the freezing flow of rocks and river waters...wondering if my absence would even matter....when Adam died...his death mattered...so many people were affected by his loss....through this journey...the journey that was chosen for me to live and endure---I came to see who I really am---and I never stopped believing in me...nor will I...as the dark days s-l-o-w-l-y began to clear...I realized what truly mattered and what really never did---I hope I matter...that somehow, in someway....someone was touched by me---that before I die...I may have made the lives of others just a little brighter through my spirit....