Kris Carr’s Golden Ticket

November 19th, 2013
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I recently wrote about some of the good things I learned about surviving a personal trauma in the ten years after my husband’s death (No Lifeguard On Duty http://crylaughheal.com/no-lifeguard-on-duty/).  After that post was published, many people told me they found it helpful to know how things feel ten years after a loss.

No matter how crazy and afraid you feel after a loss, it’s essential to keep trying to find the support you need until you discover a different way to live.  Even though change is the last thing you want to do, change is possible.  It feels as … Read More

No Lifeguard On Duty

November 14th, 2013
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If you had told me ten years ago that it would take me this long to navigate my conflicting feelings of loss and truly come to grips with the fact that my husband died, he’s not coming back and I’ll never see him again, I would have thought you were smoking something and totally out there. In the beginning, I was just trying to survive which meant working a full-time job and raising a thirteen-year-old boy by myself.  I honestly didn’t think beyond the day I was in.  That’s all I could manage.  I constantly told myself that other women… Read More

With A Little Help From My Friends

November 7th, 2013
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Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends, Mmm, gonna try with a little help from my friends. . .                                         ~ The Beatles Whether it’s alcoholism, gambling, overeating, drug addiction or grief, I believe that others who are traveling the same unpredictable path as ourselves can often offer the greatest amount of inspiration. It may seem slow and incredibly painful but I found that when you sit and share your story with others facing the same issues, there is a sense of relief that you have finally found people who understand the depth of what you are… Read More

Talking on All Souls Day

November 2nd, 2013
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Just because someone isn’t with you doesn’t mean you can’t talk to them…….right? People have imaginary conversations all the time.  In the shower.  While shaving or putting on your make-up.  In the kitchen.  Taking a walk.  Jogging. It’s not weird.  At least, I don’t think it’s weird.  I think of it as collecting or organizing your thoughts to make sure you explain yourself exactly the way you want.  Or sometimes it’s venting your emotions to the only person who might really get what you’re feeling. So what if the person is no longer here on Earth? It doesn’t matter to… Read More

Taxi Dad

November 1st, 2013
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Today’s post is a shout out to all of the men out there who have lost their wives or partners and are working hard to juggle the never ending responsibilities of working a paying job while raising their precious children. I think that women in this situation tend to receive more attention than men due to the sheer numbers of women who find themselves widowed with young children.  But men are also out there too doing their part and running around — as all parents do — trying to keep all the plates in the air. I was reminded of… Read More

Can You Hear Me Now?

October 29th, 2013
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It’s one thing to forget to turn your cell phone off and then have it ring while you are in church, in a job interview, at a funeral or in a theater, but it takes some major manipulation of a person’s ego to actually answer it while they are in those places. Right? Someone I didn’t know sat next to me during a play and her cell phone started ringing.  I immediately looked at her and she started searching her purse to find the phone.  I assumed that once she found it, she would just turn it off.  Wrong!! She… Read More

Nighty Night?

October 24th, 2013
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The change in seasons has been taking me for a bit of a roller coaster ride lately and I am ready to get off. I can’t quite put my finger on what is bringing about all of these conflicting feelings but I am determined not to let them get the best of me.  Some of it, I think, has to do with the sun beginning to set earlier now but I think the other factors may be a prolonged lack of sleep and a lot of family stuff rolling around in my brain.  I know I am tired and I… Read More

Arlington Cemetary Allows Personal Mementos

October 18th, 2013
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Arlington National Cemetery has a heart. Officials at the cemetery recently talked to families about their months long practice of leaving personal items on soldier’s headstones and Arlington is now compromising on its policies about leaving the personal mementos at gravesites. Today’s post is an update of a story I  wrote about on October 3 discussing how staff at Arlington National Cemetery were collecting and discarding personal mementos left in Section 60 of the cemetery an area where soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried.  This area of the cemetery is where each visitor’s grief is… Read More