The Great Possession Debate

October 4th, 2013
Posted By: Mary Kate Cranston

Sometimes you find help in the most unpredictable places.

Yesterday morning I was reading a column in The Washington Post called Home Front and came across a question from a reader that I thought was timely, on point and more importantly, one that we all probably will have to face at some point or another in our lives.

The questioner wanted to know what to do with the possessions that once belonged to a loved one.  Specifically, the things that belonged to her father, who had recently died.  Inheriting a lifetime of someone else’s possessions can be overwhelming and increase … Read More

Changes At Arlington Cemetery

October 3rd, 2013
Posted By: Mary Kate Cranston

A cemetery is an intimate place. For me, it is a place where I let down my guard and become vulnerable to my feelings.  Sometimes I raise my arms to the sky as if saying that I am ready to let it all wash over me but other times I sit silently and close my eyes and try to center my thoughts. In the summertime when I visit my husband’s grave, I sometimes love to lay in the grass that covers where he is buried.  As I lay on my back looking up at the sky, I love to let… Read More

Cleaning Your Soul

October 1st, 2013
Posted By: Mary Kate Cranston

I know this is going to sound very old school but I’m going to come out with it anyway: sometimes if I want to feel better, I pull out the cleaning supplies and take a room apart. I fill a pan with hot soapy water, gather some rags and a few spray cleaners and I then I go for it! Over the weekend, I did this to my kitchen because something about the change in seasons was in the air and I looked around and thought I would feel better if I could clean away some of the dirt and… Read More

Amazing You!

September 26th, 2013
Posted By: Mary Kate Cranston

A significant and ongoing part of the grieving process is learning what to do with the confusing feelings you experience. What am I supposed to do with the sad, angry, and surreal emotions I have inside me about the person who used to be in my life?  That person who was here yesterday, but is not here today, and won’t ever be here for a lot more todays in the future.  How can I turn those sad, angry, surreal feelings into constructive feelings so that I can make a future for myself? Acceptance of my new life and my new… Read More

Dear Sugar. . . You Make It So Much Better!

September 25th, 2013
Posted By: Mary Kate Cranston

Cheryl Strayed is one of my favorite authors.  I discovered her when I received her New York Times best seller, Wild, as a present this past Christmas.  From the first page, I was all in and couldn’t stop reading and definitely didn’t want her journey in Wild to end. I was totally drawn into every aspect of her memoir and in reading Wild, came to respect the amount of introspection and hard work she put herself through to bring that compelling story out of herself. No other writer that I know of delivers the goods about life and loss the… Read More

Never Look Away

September 19th, 2013
Posted By: Mary Kate Cranston

When you consider the amount of emotional baggage we all carry around with us, it is amazing that we find love. Wounded though our hearts may be, we cannot fight the attraction and pull of another person who catches our fancy. Maybe you have been lucky and found love more than once. I found love with a small l a few times, but found love with a capital L only once.  It’s an amazing, powerful, crazy thing this love emotion that takes us over and keeps us going and truly defines our lives.  It is not to be treated lightly,… Read More

Washington DC Navy Yard Shootings

September 17th, 2013
Posted By: Mary Kate Cranston

There was something about the first email news alert that came into my work computer yesterday morning at 9:01 a.m. “Reports of an active shooter at Navy Yard area.  Avoid that area.” I don’t know if it was the time of day, the location of the shooter or the fact that it was a Monday that made me stare at the email and think, “This is bad.”  Unsure of what parts of the city my colleagues planned to go for meetings or appointments, I immediately forwarded the Navy Yard email to everyone in my office. The “active shooter” the email… Read More

A Touching Moment at CVS

September 13th, 2013
Posted By: Mary Kate Cranston

I was in the CVS near my office a few days, popping in to buy something for an officemate. I was buying only one item so I stood in the self-checkout line. But then the regular line opened up.  A young African American woman behind the cash register waved for me to come on over to her register so I did. As she scanned my CVS discount card and my purchase, her eyes looked at the pearl necklace I had on.  Since her hands were full, she tilted her head in my direction. “I like your pearl necklace.” “Thank you! … Read More

Time Stands Still on Sept. 11

September 11th, 2013
Posted By: Mary Kate Cranston

Time will stand still for me this morning around 8:45 a.m. when the clock will remind me that twelve years ago today, the first plane, a hijacked American Airlines jet flying out of Boston, crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center, setting into motion national events and policies that permanently changed the way we as a nation live. All I need to do is look at a picture of the Twin Towers and it all comes back to me.  Not only the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York City, but also the terrorist attack… Read More