This week I was reminded of just how stubborn I can be. On Thursday, May 5th, I stepped wrong on an uneven sidewalk and went down hard, presumably twisting my ankle. No one saw it and I sat there a...
So its been one week exactly since Mothers Day, and since I walked down the stairs to find my beloved kitty Sammy, lying there dead on the cement basement floor. As hard as I try not to focus on that...
I think it is important to continue to evaluate your emotions as you travel further forward into the future leaving behind that milestone marked as your new start – AL (After Loss). We categorize...
Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if Boris came back to life now. If he just appeared again, alive and starting where he left off. Maybe he was never dead. Maybe he was just away. I have little...
As soon as I heard media report that we would at last see the sun and enjoy temperatures above 70 degrees, Lola the pup and I made quick plans to take a respite from our long Winter here in the city...
and hope . . . Looking out my window before dawn I witness evidence of surviving grief. Abstract but authentic proof of something deep inside that insists upon living fully alive. Twinkle...
Main image by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash It’s not the kind of thing that we go around saying, is it? At least not the Brits. At least not most Western Europeans. And at least not on a regular, ongoing...
This was my second Mother’s Day as a solo parent, and I found it didn’t have the same rawness as last year when I was weeks into mourning. I found myself able to smile more and enjoy our families...
This is pretty much what I wrote on Facebook this morning, with a few added thoughts. I just do not have the energy to put thoughts to words right now. My Sammy is gone on this Mothers Day. Woke up...
I haven’t had much downtime lately. Life is just moving at a very rapid pace and yesterday my body decided we were in desperate need of a red light and slammed on the brakes. I was at work feeling...
A lot of people assume that all widowed people receive a life insurance payout after the death of their person. In the United States, only 52% of people have life insurance. Of those people, 27% don't carry an amount sufficient to cover all bills in the event of their person's death.
https://www.policygenius.com/life-insurance/life-insurance-statistics/
#ssigriefmythbusters
Friday, May 13, 2022
As humans, we tend to want to linger in the "good" emotions and speed through the discomfort of the "challenging" emotions. This is true in grief as well, but if we deny ourselves the anger (and other hard emotions) we are likely to make repeated trips back to it several times over. There's no timeline to any of this - only your time - and if anger requires a bit of extra time to push through now and in the future, give yourself the grace to walk through it as often and as long as needed.
#ssigriefmythbusters
Friday, April 29, 2022
Ever hear that you should take their photos down? That it's been long enough, and having those memories on the walls must make you feel sad? That they're concerned because you still have memories of them displayed?
When we deny ourselves the opportunity to integrate our past with our present, we miss out on the comfort that bringing them forward into today can provide. You don't have to take those photos down until (or if) you're ready.
#ssigriefmythbusters
Friday, April 22, 2022
This is a big one. We're often not told of the body's physical responses to the heavy toll that grief takes. Grief shows up physically in all sorts of different ways - hair loss, weight loss/weight gain, increased anxiety, mind fog, the inability to focus or read...our bodies all respond differently to the weight of the grief we carry.
#ssigriefmythbusters
(While this is true, we would be remiss if we didn't encourage you to discuss the physicality of your grief with your doctors)
Friday, March 25, 2022
As you grieve the death of a spouse or partner, it's normal for your emotional responses to be disproportionate to how you would normally react. Both heightened responses and decreased responses (feeling numb or unaffected) are a result of the trauma you are going through.
#ssigriefmythbusters
Friday, February 25, 2022
