There was a sense of urgency about the way mini waterfalls and rapids formed in the otherwise docile water. Its beauty—flowing at the foot of a bucolic green hillside dotted with dandelions—reminded me how the moments I love most are fleeting...
It's been a week of grief, my friends. Grief talking and writing, that is. My writer friend (and genuinely amazing person), Emily Silva Hockstra, invited me to be a guest on her YouTube series, Journeys Through Grief. You can hear (and see!) me talk about grief by clicking here. The kind folks at Brevity Blog … Continue reading A Week of Grief (but not in a bad way)
I don’t “enjoy” grief, but I respect it as part of my life. I also know that grief is a result of love, and when I watch griefy things, I’m also reminded of those I love.
Many of us were taught that “things” don’t (or shouldn’t) matter, especially more than life, so grieving the loss of our things can feel selfish. But most of us don’t lead monastic lives, and our things are often reminders of memories and people we hold close in our hearts.
The grief we feel when a pet dies can sometimes rival (or surpass) the grief we feel when a person dies. It gets more complicated when we must decide whether it’s time to end their life. It tears us in so many directions—Who are we to play God?—and while we struggle with the decision and … Continue reading Grief Talk Tuesday: Saying Goodbye to Our 4-Legged Friends
I need steady background noise in order to sleep. I tried a sound machine once, but each sound setting was on a loop. Instead of falling sleep, I was a moth drawn to flame. I’d concentrate on (and anticipate) the end of the loop, over and over and over. After a week, the machine went … Continue reading Grief Talk Tuesday: Operating Instructions
How can you befriend, love, respect, and, ultimately, grieve and miss someone you’ve never met? It’s easy if you’ve never met Cammy Chapel. Some of you remember Lynn’s Weigh , the blog where I wrote about my weight loss and body issues from 2005-2015. Sometime in the late 2000s, Cammy and I discovered each other’s … Continue reading Can You Grieve Someone You Never Met? Absolutely.
A few weeks ago, Carlene started “talking.” When she sits in my lap, she taps my face with her hands and says, “Mum mum mum,” and I am both proud and petrified. When I try to get her to say, “da da,” she always looks confused. “Who’s da da?” I imagine she asks. “He’s the guy we’re both growing up without,” I tell her.
How many times in a day, a week, a month do you say to yourself, "I should have/why didn't I..." and proceed to berate yourself for not doing the thing you think you should have done? My answer is: too many. Living with a loss, in all its forms – death, divorce, employment, friendship, money, … Continue reading Grief Talk: Self-Kindness
between. The thing is, though, that even when we think it’s destroying us, it just might be strengthening us, teaching us more about ourselves than we ever wanted to know.
Zen Bag Lady 