Category: Love and Loss

Reflection on Finding Meaning in a Gratitude Challenge

Although I had planned to share my November gratitude challenge earlier, now seems to be a fitting moment as I close out 2024. I started the challenge on November 3rd and disciplined myself to post something daily, regardless of how I felt. Instead of focusing on what might have happened on a particular day, though…… Continue reading Reflection on Finding Meaning in a Gratitude Challenge

Grief Ghost: Coping With Loss and Memories

Grief Ghost It’s living with the ghost of Christmas Past, for no more memories can be made. Images that appear in your dreams Or your thoughts in the middle of the night As you lie awake, sleep evades you. It comes unbidden when those special days draw near. Wedding anniversaries, birthdays, holidays, death dates, and…… Continue reading Grief Ghost: Coping With Loss and Memories

Unrequited Dreams

Empty chairs where we will never sit, Holding hands, reminiscing. Time stolen by an adversary Too strong to be beaten. You left too soonLeaving me behind to find a new path.Some days, the grief is the background staticSwirling around in my mind.Just when I’m feeling steady in my journey,The grief becomes a tsunami,Tearing apart the…… Continue reading Unrequited Dreams

When a Friend Dies

I have been through the grief of my husband and parents’ deaths, but this is the first time I’ve had a significant friend die. I was not prepared for the devastating heartache that accompanied this loss. So much of grief literature focuses on the three prominent deaths: child, spouse, and parent, but I’ve not read…… Continue reading When a Friend Dies

Presence of Absence

I went to a webinar on grief and loneliness, and the speaker used the phrase “presence of absence,” part of a quote by Edna St. Vincent Millay. It was an “aha” moment of recognition of how I was feeling, especially with the fresh grief of the death of my 19-year-old cat. This was the first…… Continue reading Presence of Absence

A New Kind of Birthday

“You were the first baby I saw being born,” my mom would tell me when she would wish me a happy birthday every year. I was the second of five children. The window was at an angle that allowed her to see my entrance into the world. “You were always in a hurry, ready to…… Continue reading A New Kind of Birthday

A Love Letter to My Father

Dear Dad, On this first Father’s Day without you, the words that come to mind when I think of you are kind, compassionate, supportive, faithful, and my champion and cheerleader. I can feel you in the way I live my life, especially in your example of how you treated the least among us. How you…… Continue reading A Love Letter to My Father

Losing A Part of Myself

I read this sentiment in a memoir and then heard it again in a free monthly webinar by Wendy Kessler, MSW, FT, on Reimagining Love. When the person we love dies, it is unlike a scar that heals. Instead, it is an amputation that we learn to adapt to. We are never the same. Instead,…… Continue reading Losing A Part of Myself

This Sad Season

I was listening to the “What’s Your Grief Podcast” episode on Holiday Musings on Family & Impermanence today, and I had an aha moment when Eleanor was sharing how her part 1 was when she was a kid and part 2 after her mom died. This resonates with me as I struggle with this holiday…… Continue reading This Sad Season

This New Life

Grief has left me feeling lonely and adrift in the world. I am searching for the person I will be in this new phase of my life. With my parents’ death six months apart this year, I feel like I was hit with a one-two punch. I had barely lifted myself off the mat after…… Continue reading This New Life