Ever turn pain into purpose?

I often hear people say that grief is all the bottled-up LOVE you never got to pour out. With so much love still inside, I sometimes feel it overflowing with

NoWhEre

to

go.

One safe place I’ve found to release it is by doing the very things my mother loved and pouring myself into them when possible.

This September, my brother, sister, and I chose to honor her in that way. Each year, my mother devoted

herself

to

SERVING

through her church community, planning for children to have some supplies to start the school year. In her spirit, we’ve committed to continuing that tradition. This year, we’ll be giving away school supplies right on the intersection that now bears her name—Aracely Courtenay Way.

The planning process has been bittersweet. There are moments of joy, where it feels amazing to be building something in her honor. And then there are moments when the grief rushes in—those times when I just want to hug her, kiss her, call her, and tell her what we’re doing. Instead, we pour that ache into action, into giving, into love—just as she always did.

These acts don’t take away the hurt of loss, but they do create a space to pour some of that love into—transforming pain into purpose, and absence into action. In that way, her light continues to shine for us, and her legacy continues to live beyond her life.

“What a lady. What a legend. What a queen.”- aracelycourtenay.com

Light&Legacy Newsletter

Have you ever tried turning your pain into action?

It would be so encouraging to hear what that was like like for you…