True story – Mark Wayne – Author and Warrior

Revisiting Chapter 8 – The Lingering Ambiguity

April 19, 2022April 19, 2022 Mark Wayne

Disclaimer: This post was written the day after the Good Friday and Easter weekend that I as a Christian celebrate. This year was also the 29th anniversary of her death on Good Friday in the year 1993. I was 28 years old when she died, thus I have been alive longer without her than I was alive when she died. ~Mark W. Schutter

One if the many reviews and feedback I have received for my memoir. I am blessed and also left with this lingering ambiguity regarding my story and it’s impact on others.

Even after writing my memoir, having it edited and published I am still left with many unanswered questions. Many that I believe will never be answered this side of heaven. When someone is dying and the dreaded end is evitable what then?

All the promises and the vows that no longer matter, ’till death do us part.’ The heartfelt pleas and prayers that went unanswered while time simply marches on. The ambiguity that can surround grief often leads to feelings that emerge that are not common. The expression or stifling of those feelings can lead to disappointments, disagreements, conflict, and confusion for all involved.

Death can bring out the best in people and the worst. And in those moments grace for ourselves and others is sometimes hard to find.

I realize now of many things I did without much thought for the impacts on myself and others. I trudged through the days expecting more of myself, more of those around me, more from the world and from God. I have since realized that for many years I never gave myself permission to feel, to grieve my loss. (And that is a story for another chapter later in the book. 😉)

I was just beginning to learn how to embrace my life as it was now, not as I wished it to be, for that was the only way to see a future. #Grief #Healing #LifeAfter #Trauma
Tweet

Get your copy of Cowboys Are Not Supposed to Cry here >

And a review on Amazon or Goodreads would be very much appreciated. Thanks again!

Read my thoughts on the first seven chapters of my memoir, links below, and watch for Part 2: Embracing the Present and chapters 9-14.

And yet, I still believe that there is always hope and hope is never a small thing!

Life, memoir, Photograph

Wordless Wednesday – #67

April 13, 2022April 11, 2022 Mark Wayne

Grief, memoir, Writing

Revisiting Chapter 7 – I Am the One Dying

April 5, 2022April 5, 2022 Mark Wayne

To begin this chapter I share a dream I had some years previous that had I never shared with anyone before it found its way into my memoir, 𝐂𝐨𝐰𝐛𝐨𝐲𝐬 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐂𝐫𝐲. I am still quite honestly surprised that I shared the dream unedited. 😉

“I do not understand?” he questioned her, fighting to quell his surprise and rage that was growing.
“No, you do not,” she stated simply, still not looking at him as they continued to walk.
The words hung in the air as she paused before taking a breath. He watched her as she continued to look straight ahead, staring off into the distance as she calmly added in a tone of finality,
“I am the one dying.”
CHAPTER 7, I AM THE ONE DYING, PAGE 71 – MARK W. SCHUTTER

Thus ended the dream from which I awoke my heart pounding. There is much more detail to the dream that is revealed in my memoir. If you haven’t purchased my book, go buy a print or e-book copy on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or iTunes (shameless self-promotion! 😉).

Have you ever had a dream from which you wonder at it’s meaning, even as you know there is truth spoken in the dream? Luka’s comment in the dream that she was the one dying definitely spoke a truth that I was unwilling to acknowledge while she was alive. I often found myself denying the truth and unwilling to face the reality of her illness.

Yet, I hope I am wiser now and realizing that we are all traveling different roads. Our roads will parallel and cross over others at times but ultimately we each must journey alone into the alone.

The words hung in the air as she paused before taking a breath. He watched her as she continued to look straight ahead, staring off into the distance as she calmly added in a tone of finality, “𝙄 𝙖𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙙𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜.”

CHAPTER 7, I AM THE ONE DYING, PAGE 71 – MARK W. SCHUTTER, Cowboys Are Not Supposed to Cry
Tweet

Why is it such surprising news when we know that each one of us will face dying, both our own and that of ones we love.

Grief, memoir, Writing

What Grief Are You Still Carrying?

March 15, 2022 Mark Wayne

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. ~Matthew 5:4

Hello friends!

Been absent for awhile just allowing the mud to settle if you will so I can see a little bit more clearly. Spending time with God in prayer and just being silent.

Lots of grief coming up lately that has been heavy on my heart. Both from the past and the current situation.

I am realizing more and more that after almost 29 years I am still carrying my grief. And really that’s ok. My grief and longing over what was lost and might have been can, and does, exist right alongside my joy and peace.

I mourn and I am comforted. I grieve and I am blessed.

What are your thoughts? 🤔

What grief are you still carrying? Tell my I am listening. #WickedQuestions
Tweet

And if you stayed with me and read this far thank you. If you would leave me a comment or even just a 👊, 👍, ❤ or whatever so I know I am not alone.

Thanks again and I pray each of you is blessed. 🙏

PS – You can still get a copy of my memoir, 𝘾𝙤𝙬𝙗𝙤𝙮𝙨 𝘼𝙧𝙚 𝙉𝙤𝙩 𝙎𝙪𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝘾𝙧𝙮, either print or e-book at the following:

Thanks for the support and a review on Amazon or Goodreads is always appreciated! 👊

Grief, Life, memoir, Writing

Revisiting Chapter 5 – Death Is Only the Beginning

March 3, 2022 Mark Wayne

It was another lifetime in another place when she stood next to me in a world that does not exist anymore.
Chapter 5, Death Is Only the Beginning, Page 51 – Mark W. Schutter

So begins the first sentence of this chapter of my memoir, Cowboys Are Not Supposed to Cry. This chapter is unique in that the first few pages I quote four lines from a poem I wrote entitled The Young Girl That I Long Ago Wed and Who Drove Me Mad, originally published in September 2018, long before my memoir came out in 2020. In the chapter I follow-up each four line stanza of the poem by expanding on my thoughts and meaning of those four lines.

Grief, pain, loss, and trauma often leave you feeling as if you are going mad. Sometimes there is nothing you can do except to endure it for the moment as the succeeding minutes become hours, days, weeks, months, and years. The pain sometimes fades yet the madness continues to dance around the edges of our sanity. The world that was, that we believed and hoped would be, is no longer and never will be. It often doesn’t make sense and I surmise that is where faith comes in.

Now faith is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen. ~Hebrews 11:1
Tweet

Thank God for my faith in a life after the trauma and in an afterlife, that is what often keep me moving forward. I was in a fog for many months after her death as the world just seemed so wrong and yet, I soldiered on as best I could.

How can we be so surprised when someone dies when everybody already knows we are all going to die?
Chapter 5, Death Is Only the Beginning, Page 58 – Mark W. Schutter