Posts Tagged: pain

First Birthday In Heaven

May 25th, 2015
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Today may be your first Memorial Day without a loved one.

My heart goes out to you and your family as you try to process the overwhelming feelings of loss while also trying to figure out how to go on with your lives.  How can you make your way down this long, winding and sometimes brutal path?  It’s a path you do not want and yet, even as you try to reject it, you find it is one you are slowly learning to walk.

headstones

ou may feel alone but you are not.  You are loved and many want to offer … Read More

Torch By Cheryl Strayed

February 20th, 2015
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As soon as I finished reading Wild, Cheryl Strayed’s fantastic New York Times best-selling memoir (http://crylaughheal.com/wild-by-cheryl-strayed/), I wanted to read more of Stayed’s work. I enjoyed seeing Wild the movie and thought it should have received more attention in terms of nominations but what I really wanted was to read more of Strayed’s honest and direct thoughts about the gritty aspects of life and loss, what happens to us through our friendships and who and how we love. I wanted to read more of the her words, and the way she chooses to put them together.  I truly have never… Read More

Creating An Oasis of Calm

February 16th, 2015
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When I read the above sign, I knew I was in the right place. Isn’t it just great? I love the simplicity and comfort of this message and the fact that it was posted on a black bench in the lobby of a local yoga studio where I took my first lesson over the weekend made the idea behind the message even better. I was in a new place about to begin a new experience but felt immediately welcomed. Taking off my shoes became the first step to creating a calming place for myself.  As I pulled my boots off… Read More

A Stranger’s Human Thoughts

February 9th, 2015
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You never know what you are going to hear when you are getting your hair done. I was going about my usual weekend routine when a man reminded me that we as humans have more in common than we acknowledge.  Each of us are in different places and different phases, but most of us are trying to make sense of our lives, past and present, and each of us has something we are trying to work out and heal within ourselves. Grief, for all of its raw pain and turmoil, does teach us things about life.  I don’t mean for… Read More

Permission To Feel

January 14th, 2015
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There are times when I read something that clarifies an issue for me or it helps me connect the dots of information I have spread about in my brain and when this happens I want to share it for the information might also be a great resource for you too! In this case, it is an incredibly insightful piece that I read in this past Sunday’s New York Times.  It is written by Patrick O’Malley, a psychotherapist from Fort Worth, Texas, and his opinion piece addresses why people tend to grieve the way they think others want them to grieve,… Read More

A Lovely Diamond Heart

December 10th, 2014
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And then there are acts of love that people randomly do that are often so selfless as to take your breath away. Upon reading the healing and tender story from Associated Press I am sharing below, I think it definitely fits into the category of giving when it hurts. The giving part of the story involves wedding rings.  I say to you, Lovely Boston Widow, I can’t imagine giving away my wedding rings in that manner, but at the same time, I say more power and blessings to you Lovely Boston Widow for doing it. High five!! Nothing so publicly… Read More

A New Project on Amazon

November 12th, 2014
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Hey there Resilient Readers: This morning I am very excited to share news with you about a project which started last year and is now completed!! It’s a new ebook about grief and I am included (Cry Laugh Heal is Chapter 21; don’t worry the chapters are short!) along with other bloggers and writers whose work I consider to be truly fantastic!  I am beyond flattered to be included in this wonderful project that we hope will help others in their grief. The book is titled “From Grief To Greatness” and it was written and organized by a great guy… Read More

Louis Zamperini

July 9th, 2014
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It is worth noting the recent and sad passing of 97-year-old Louis Zamperini, a man whose life story was defined by his spirit of resilience. Everyone encounters challenges and traumas in their lives but Zamperini’s were of a sort that would have crushed most people.  No matter what came his way — imprisonment during World War II, torture, substance abuse, he never gave up. To me, his life is a unique resource.  When the Japanese capture him, and he is held captive and tortured, he digs deep within himself and finds a way to go on, even though he is… Read More

The Good Wife Grieves

April 1st, 2014
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Television doesn’t always get it right when trying to show the raw emotional effects a person experiences after learning of a death but Sunday’s night’s episode of The Good Wife came very close. As is true in real life and acted in The Good Wife, everything instantly changes as each character finds out that attorney Will Gardner (Josh Charles) has been shot in a courtroom shootout and killed by his own client: the look on a person’s face, the tone of their voice, the way they carry themselves.  Something gets turned off.  There is a dazed and dull feeling after… Read More