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Living with Grief
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Signs of Life
April is upon us – although nights are still chilly, the days are getting longer and brighter. Here in Minnesota, signs of new life are all around us: tulips, daffodils…
Telling Secrets
“I not only have my secrets, I am my secrets. And you are your secrets. Our secrets are human secrets, and our trusting each other enough to share them with…
Grief and healing
In the journal C.S. Lewis kept after his wife died, A Grief Observed, he captured the signs of healing when he wrote, “There was no sudden, striking and emotional transition.…
The Case for Hibernation
In this cold, snowy month, fish rest beneath icy lakes, and animals sleep in tree hallows and earthen dens. I never really thought about hibernation until I discovered Gayle Boss’…
Grief and the holidays
‘Tis the season of twinkling lights, holiday cheer, and frenzied shopping. But it is also a time of gathering darkness, short days and long, frosty nights. As the winter deepens,…
Carrying grief, carrying gratitude
When you are grieving, some might say, “Just be grateful that…” These statements rarely land well. No one else gets to tell us how to feel. Your loss and healing…
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How we remember
“In the end, we remember people in pieces — slivers of memory, images, bursts of sound, and trails of whispers.”…
Loss & beauty
As my parents were dying, I developed a fascination with birds. I started purchasing feeders and bird baths, researching the…
Am I going backwards?
In A Grief Observed, the journal C.S. Lewis kept after his wife died, he described the circular nature of loss,…
The laziness of grief
“And no one ever told me about the laziness of grief. Except at my job — where the machine seems…
Regrets & finding peace
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” – Soren Kierkegaard, paraphrased from “Journals and Papers…
Mapping our grief
If you were to make a map of your own grief, what would it look like? I think of grief as…
Play your grief card
A grieving mother once shared with me that she was shocked at how insensitive others were, how they kept forgetting…
Making space for grief
I once knew a woman whose son had died. Her grief was profound and unpredictable, and she was often caught…
Hope for the new year
When you have experienced a loss, the whole world can feel different. Even the new year can feel strange. While…
Grief and gratitude
Here in the Midwest, the trees have shed their leaves as long dark nights give way to frosty mornings. Soon,…
Living in the gap
Fall is upon us. The trees are dropping their leaves, giving way to bare branches, cool nights and shorter days.…
You are not alone
“The act of living is different all through,” C.S. Lewis wrote in the book, A Grief Observed. Lewis was reflecting…