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    A Reason to Believe: The Wonder of It All
    A Reason to Believe: The Wonder of It All
    A Reason to Believe: The Wonder of It All
    Ebook54 pages47 minutes

    A Reason to Believe: The Wonder of It All

    By Bonnie Caraway Brown

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    About this ebook

    Since her youngest son's tragic death in 2002, Bonnie Brown has learned there is more to this life and to us than our human minds can understand. This knowledge didn't come in an "aha!" moment or an epiphany of understanding. It has come about as the result of an ongoing journey to "find" her son. Unwilling to be a victim and allow the all encompassing grief she was feeling to swallow her up, Bonnie Brown set out on a journey to "find" her beloved Cody. She refused to believe that he could be gone, extinguished as if he had never existed. She was certain of his physical death. She had sat and watched unflinchingly as the nurse removed him from the ventilator; the machine that had served as the only link between him and physical life. She heard the machine as it breathed for him one last time. She stroked his eyebrows and kissed his face and felt the absence of that energy we call "life". Where had that energy gone? That energy that is a person's essence, that energy that makes an individual unique. That was the part of Cody she was looking for. This is the story of that journey.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBalboa Press
    Release dateApr 5, 2011
    ISBN9781452532561
    A Reason to Believe: The Wonder of It All
    Author

    Bonnie Caraway Brown

    As a single parent of three children, Bonnie Brown enjoyed a close relationship with each of her children. As the youngest of the three, Cody was the only one still living at home when the accident occured. In "A Reason To Believe; The Wonder Of It All" Bonnie Brown recalls her son Cody's tragic death in 2002 and the journey of spiritual awakening she experienced as a result of it. Bonnie Brown has chosen to continue to have a relationship with her son even though his physical presence is no longer here. She is grateful to God for the time she and Cody shared on this earth. For reasons she can't explain and with experiences she doesn't understand, Bonnie feels that God has allowed her to continue to experience Cody's presence. In this book, she shares some of those experiences with her readers in hopes of lifting their spirits as hers has been. Bonnie Brown lives in Pensacola, FL close to her other two children and their families. In the time since Cody's death, Bonnie has completed a graduate degree in Social Work and is pursuing licensure in that field. She is a grief counselor In addition to being a medical social worker with Emerald Coast Hospice where she deals with life and death on a daily basis.

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      Book preview

      A Reason to Believe - Bonnie Caraway Brown

      Contents

      Wonder

      Foreword

      Acknowledgements

      The Beginning

      Joy

      Best Friends

      Law of Physics

      Shopping

      Skateboarding

      More foreshadowing?

      Broken Leg

      A Visit?

      MOM!

      Playing With The Lights

      Coincidences?

      Out Of The Mouth of Babes

      Psychic Connection

      OHM

      If I Could Find That Dime

      Wonder

      Definition: Wonder

      Wonder

      Noun

      1. The feeling aroused by something strange and surprising.

      2. Something that causes feelings of wonder; the wonders of modern science.

      3. A state in which you want to learn more about something.

      Verb

      1. Have a wish or desire to know something; He wondered who had built this beautiful church.

      2. Place in doubt or express doubtful speculation; I wonder whether this was the right thing to do; she wondered whether it would snow tonight.

      3. Be amazed at; We marveled at the child’s linguistic abilities.

      Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

      Foreword

      What is of greatest importance in a person’s life is not just the nature and extent of his or her experiences but what has been learned from them.

      –Norman Cousins

      I have learned that death is not the enemy. We are all dying from the moment we enter this world. For some of us the stay here is a lengthy one. For others, it’s much briefer. But no matter what amount of time is allotted to us in this life, one thing is certain. Our physical bodies were not meant to live forever. God deliberately designed the human body to end at some point. He does not make mistakes. So when a person dies, whether after having lived a long and meaningful life or after only being on this Earth for a few days or even a few minutes, that is the way that particular life was supposed to be. Death is very much a natural part of life and, if we will just be open to it, it can be a great teacher and soul advancer.

      I have learned that the more you look for the positives in life, the easier they are to see. Even in the face of great adversity, such as the death of a child, there are positives. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a Pollyanna, always seeing the best life has to offer and trying to avoid the harsh realities that go hand in hand with them. No, I struggled horribly after the death of my son. Grief and depression were my constant companions at first. The grief was so consuming I thought it would swallow me whole. But it didn’t. Instead, it left me broken and depressed. I gradually began to realize that I was going to have to deal with the pain, stay in this world and somehow learn to live again. Live even though it seemed my life would never be whole again. But I did learn to live again. And I learned to see the positives in situations where before I thought there were none. I learned to listen for and hear God’s wonders where before I would have missed them. My hope is that in reading this book and hearing about my journey, your journey and your path will be lightened and you too, will find the wonders in life which give you a reason to believe.

      Acknowledgements

      Thank you to my wonderful family who supported me through my grief even while they were dealing with their own. For they all loved and were loved by Cody:

      My son, Matt

      My daughter, Marisa

      My sister, Joni

      And

      My parents, Bob & Barbara Caraway

      My nephew, James

      My Aunt and Cody’s Great-Aunt Mary Anne

      Cody’s father, Charley

      I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to each and every person who attended Cody’s viewing and funeral. There were far too many of you for me to be able to thank personally. So, on the slight chance that you are reading this book because you know me or knew Cody and attended his funeral, thank you from the

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