Working Through Grief

A Lady From Spokane

October 8th, 2014
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She was a rabid Washington Redskins fan, she took pride in her well-kept hairdo and manicured fingernails, and she loved to have a good stiff drink with a cigarette.

She was also a cancer patient and a kind soul who would help you in any way she could.

Sadly, yesterday morning, I received a phone call telling me I had lost my good friend to cancer.

I had known this lady from Spokane for almost four decades.  I first got to know her and her husband when they lived and worked in Washington, DC.  Then they retired, bought a home … Read More

Lessons from the Spin Cycle

September 24th, 2014
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Photo via Pinterest   Whoa Nelly!! I know what this feels like, don’t you? It feels unexpected, awkward, a little uncontrollable and intense. As though at any moment, what you thought was stable becomes unstable. What you thought was predictable become unpredictable. Mood swings, spontaneous crying and having feelings change very quickly. I think of experiencing this mixture of feelings as being in a spin cycle if you will. When you are unsure of what is coming next.  It truly feels this way when grief has you on the run or a life changing trauma has taken your breath away.… Read More

9/11: Healing & Resilience

September 11th, 2014
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On the thirteenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, my thoughts today are with the people whose lives changed so tragically and so dramatically when their loved ones died. It may not feel to them as if thirteen years has passed since this horrific event.  It may feel as though their loss happened yesterday.  That’s the trick that grief can sometimes play on us.  For no matter how much time has passed, no matter how much work has been put out to move the healing process forward, the anniversary of losing a loved one is a day filled with powerful conflicting… Read More

Friends Forever: Billy Crystal & Robin Williams

August 27th, 2014
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Comedian Billy Crystal’s tribute to Robin Williams during Monday night’s Emmy Awards was moving because it stripped away the glitter and glitz and glamour of Hollywood and spoke of something essential: the gift of friendship. Crystal talked about what a great friend Robin Williams was to him and to try and imagine the two of them just hanging out together as two down-to-earth dudes was special in itself.  We see comedians and actors performing together all the time and they look like they are enjoying each other but we really don’t know if it’s genuine.  It could be an act.  … Read More

A Neighborly Comfort Zone

August 13th, 2014
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I am blessed with great neighbors.  We wave and chat when we see each other, we bring our newspapers in for each other when we know someone is away and we all get along in, well, I must say, a neighborly way.  We don’t really socialize with each other that much but we are aware of how most of us are doing and the general goings on in our busy lives. An older couple who lives nearby has a great porch that has a beautiful navy blue and white striped awning and we all hang out there from time to… Read More

The Grief Buzz

August 6th, 2014
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What’s the Buzz? Tara Reid tells us what she learned from talk radio.  4 LGBT refugees discuss why they came to the US.  Find out which “Friends” character should be your roommate. It’s Buzzfeed where the hottest, most social content on the web lives 24/7.  You know.  All the stuff you want to pass along to your friends. IMMEDIATELY.  To me, Buzzfeed is also a website where you find funny pictures of cats and dogs and read ALL about the latest wacky trends developing in pop culture. And to get right to it, Buzzfeed’s stories or lists are totally about… Read More

3 Irresistible Healing Summer Songs

August 4th, 2014
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This may sound weird but listening to songs about summer is a refuge for me. It’s a total sensory gut reaction.  As in when I hear a summer song that clicks within me, I mentally escape reality for a short time and my inner self begins to calm and heal.  It’s musical magic and for a few minutes the world full of noise is blocked out as I play my summer song over and over and over. You would think I was a teenager who just developed her first crush because I just won’t let go of it.  The winning… Read More

An Absolute Amazing Thought

July 30th, 2014
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As a human community, we are constantly interacting with each other on different levels.  Working, playing, and collectively striving to figure out — often through some kind of spiritual activity — what it’s all about and the nature of our roles in this great journey of life. Yet as much as we think we know someone, I find sometimes that we only know the portion of another person’s story that they want us to know. By focusing and  listening to what others have to say to us and perhaps also watching how they react to various things that happen to… Read More

Malala Day – #StrongerThan

July 14th, 2014
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Today is not just any Monday in July. It is July 14:  Malala Day.  A day of celebrating inner strength and courage. I find strength through my connections with my family, friends and my faith and I hope you too have figured out your own emotional support system that helps you sustain a spirit of hope and get to the other side of those tough and challenging times that life sends our way. Malala Yousafzai Besides those core resources, I also draw strength from other people that I have never met and don’t know personally at all.  Other people that… Read More