Finding choices at the bottom of the hill
When I’m in an unfamiliar place, I like to explore on foot. A couple of months ago, while out of town with my son for a band event, I...
Pay attention to the pain
My right shoulder hurts. It has been hurting for a while, like a few months, or maybe a couple of years, or – now that I think about it –...
When to hold on, when to let go
I love having a yard but don’t have much time to do anything about how it looks. Frequently the weeds rival the flowers in height, and I...
Grief and weather
I know people whose emotions fluctuate in response to the weather, but I never used to be one of them. Similar to what my father calls a...
What could be helpful to say?
When someone close to a friend or family member dies, we often wonder: What can I possibly say? We wrestle with our sadness and...
The shadow side of survivorship
You may have heard of the phenomenon known as “survivor guilt" (described at this link by What's Your Grief). It’s fairly well documented...
The ongoing work of coping with loss
Would that the work of grieving were more like shoveling snow... This past weekend brought the biggest snowfall of the winter so far,...
A griever's guide to Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving, a holiday that many find tough to negotiate after someone they love has died, is once again around the corner. This is my...
The hole we cannot fill
This past weekend I attended the annual fall meeting of the Board of Directors of the Bereaved Parents of the USA. One of the topics...
Castles of the future
Like many people, I grew up believing in a cause-and-effect relationship between how you live and what life brings – in other words, if...