A trigger I did not expect
It’s amazing to me how hard it is to predict how I will react in a given situation, or how I will be coping on a particular day or at a...
Permission to feel
I have a question, or three, for you to answer – not for me, but for yourself. What are you not giving yourself permission to feel right...
Grief is physical.
My hair looks different to me lately. Over the last few months, it has become puffier on the top – oddly, only on the top. My hair is...
So utterly alone. So completely connected.
The day after my brother died, I started writing everything pertaining to him and his death in a blank book. Much of what I recorded is...
Recipe for managing grief over the holidays
Here we are once again on the verge of the holiday season, with many preparing to celebrate both secular and religious holidays in the...
To become what we can be, do we need to release what we possess?
Everywhere I look I see the human impulse to possess, to retain, to own exclusively. Children often display its most raw form. I...
On Memorial Day: Training continues
On this Memorial Day, I am thinking of my husband’s great-uncle. I have thought of him often over the past eleven months since my...
Cobbling together a transformative quest, peace by peace
Recently I went on a business trip and picked up a copy of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild in an airport bookstore. Several people have told me...
Focusing on the positive: Does it help?
A bitter drink: Introduce sugar, and the whole drink becomes sweet. A cold bath: Introduce hot water, and the whole bath becomes warm. A...
After losing a sibling, searching for the sinkhole
A few days ago, a friend passed along a link to an article on the Huffington Post called “When a Brother Dies,” by Judith Newton. Ms....