Posts

Shortlisted for a Yeggie!

/0 Comments/in , /by

Is being nominated for a Yeggie like an Oscar or Grammy nomination? Well in the case of Edmonton new media – a Yeggie’s where it’s at.

I want to give a huge THANK YOU to everyone who nominated my blog writing for a Yeggie. My blog, Wanted, Chosen, Planned – Life after the Loss of a Child, made the shortlist for the category Best in Family & Parenting.

First of all I want to say that writing about my late son Zachary and our family’s journey after his death is more than an honor. Wanted, Chosen, Planned is dedicated to Zachary and I am so thankful that the legacy of his short life is that I may encourage and support others who have also lost a child. It is truly the greatest gift Zachary could have ever given me – apart from his life. I miss him daily but am glad to be making a difference. That part makes me smile. 

Yeggies photo copyright Alexis Marie Chute WRITE BLOG

The category description: The Best in Family or Parenting award is given to those who share insights into their own families or family in general online. They may call themselves Mommy Bloggers or Daddy Bloggers (though of course these categories are medium agnostic). Regardless of self-applied labels, they let us into their homes, and allow us to get to know their families — and perhaps even our own — through storytelling.

No word yet on the date of the awards night, but I’m sure it will be quite a party.

 

Wanted, Chosen, Planned Nominated for a Yeggie

/0 Comments/in /by

It is with much excitement that I announce that my blog, Wanted, Chosen, Planned, has been nominated for a Yeggie, Edmonton’s New Media Award.

The Yeggies honors local content creators and social media mavens in our city. We have an abundance of talent in Edmonton and I am thrilled to be counted amongst many greats! Wanted, Chosen, Planned is a blog where I write about “Life After the Loss of a Child” and strive to encourage those whose baby is taken too soon. Through heartfelt posts from my personal experience I reach out to those suffering from loss due to miscarriage, stillbirth, SIDS and early infant loss. My son Zachary died in 2010 from a cardiac tumor and since then I have been experimenting with this strange thing called “grief” and it’s associate, “healing.”

Wanted, Chosen, Planned is one of six blogs in the “Best in Family or Parenting” category.

The awards will be given out at a happening event on May 4, 2013 at the Shaw Conference Centre, Salon 11/12 (7:30pm), hosted by Trent Wilkie. Buy tickets online!

The Quiet Rebuild

/0 Comments/in , /by

This post was first seen on my blog Wanted Chosen Planned as it relates to the rebuilding of my life after the loss of my son Zachary. I featured it there to encourage those who have lost a child to experiment with art (of all kinds: painting, photography, journal writing, etc.) as a means to find healing. I re-post it here as my hope for this blog is to bolster the weary creative spirit within us and to turn our frustration, fear, and failure into the artwork and creative writing that we were born to bring forth. 

“The Quiet Rebuild” © Alexis Marie Chute, Wood Sculpture 2012

I have been making sculpture although I am not primarily a sculptural artist. I find the use of my hands in the tactile nature of my recent artwork very soothing. My art has been focusing on the idea that we create our understanding of the world in many ways. When my son Zachary died, my world crashed down. Like a forest burn by fire, I was brought to ash, literally. It is fitting that my artwork uses wood, both natural and manmade. I find this particular piece, “Quiet Rebuild” particularly therapeutic to look at. It reminds me of where I am at, rebuilding my life in a different time, a simpler, basic time where my expectations of the world have been brought into check.

I rebuild my life and my understanding of the world from the burnt forest, atop a humble piece of wood. What I make of my life at this stage is truly of my own invention and each fragment of my understanding of the world comes together in an awkward balance but feels right in the face of everything I have endured.

Art is a personal and unique expression. It may not bring you the answers you search for but it can help you understand the questions you are asking. I encourage you to experiment, play and create like a child. Healing often does not arrive in the way we expect.

“The Quiet Rebuild” – When death comes and takes, it changes us who live. When we see this life as it is, the impermanence of all we hold dear and yet our ability to continue on, to love and value what truly matters, then we rebuild our soul with these lessons, changed yet whole.