Forging Ahead With A New Story

It's been just about two years since I've spoken to any sizable audience. In about three hours, I'll be on my way to Phoenix to keynote the second day of the Arizona State Suicide Prevention Conference tomorrow morning. And I'll be doing this complete with a new last name and a new story.

For years I basically told the same story, gave the same information about suicide grief. Of course it morphed and changed over the years, but tomorrow will be much different. 

There is less focus on my younger sister's death and more focus about the accumulation of losses in my life and what I've done to go forward and find happiness. I'm not so sure that it's not that I've never been happy so much as it was making sure that I didn't allow myself to get caught up in the negativity that the grief process can sometimes bring on. 

The message has changed because I have changed. I have grown. I have moved forward in my life. And in all of that, I haven't forgotten who I am or what's happened to me. Or what I lost. It's just the opposite– making sure that I make the most of each day so there are no regrets.