Posts Tagged: pain

Wild By Cheryl Strayed

March 19th, 2013
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Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
                     ~ Mary Oliver
                     “The Summer Day”

From the moment I started reading the first words of the amazing New York Times bestseller, Wild, by Cheryl Strayed, I couldn’t put it down.

It has truly been a long time since I have read a book written in such a direct manner; a book so full of beautiful introspection and honesty and yet at the same time so poignant in its telling of Strayed’s compelling personal experience with grief following the tragic death of her mother … Read More

Be Careful Out There

March 11th, 2013
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On Saturday, I went to visit my parents who are in their eighties and my brother who has Down’s Syndrome. It was a beautiful day, full of sunshine and hints of the coming of Spring.  We had a delicious lunch at a local Irish pub and some good solid conversation and then it was time for me to “toddle on home,” as my great friend Ellen would say. I stopped at the gas station near my parent’s house because I like to take advantage of the cheaper gas prices in Rockville, Maryland.  There were no other cars in the gas… Read More

Reflections of Nora Ephron’s Son

March 7th, 2013
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Nora Ephron Crying is unsettling.  Especially if you are watching one of your parents do it. My son hates it when I cry and has said that when I would cry all the time immediately after his father/my husband’s death, he would feel this mix of emotions that he didn’t want to feel and so he would walk away.  I understand it and think his reaction was perfectly normal.  He was thirteen years old and dealing with something that adults find hard to handle.  He was just trying to survive. Now, at twenty two years old, my son explains his… Read More

It’s Your Road

February 5th, 2013
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Thought For The Day. . . I know this picture is a bit on the grainy side, but I really liked the sentiment of the saying: “It’s your road, and yours alone.   Others may walk it with you, But no one can walk it for you.” It would be nice if someone could take our place and walk on our road for awhile; perhaps making it less painful. Wouldn’t that be nice? But we don’t know where our road is going to take us, do we?  I believe that my road has been painful but it also has been a… Read More

Healing Therapy

February 1st, 2013
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Drawing By NYC Multiple Medium Artist Joe Mangrum One of my sisters has a shoulder that is frozen and she is going to a physical therapist who helps her work through the incredibly stiff shoulder muscles and joint.  If the physical therapy doesn’t work, then she may have to have surgery and she really doesn’t want that to happen. The other day we were talking about her physical therapy and she was telling me about how the therapist told her that to really get the exercises to unlock the muscles and joint that she would need to take the current… Read More

Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”

December 19th, 2012
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Cast of NBC’s “The Voice” singing a tribute to victims in Newtown, CT A good friend who tragically lost a loved one in the Newtown, CT mass shooting yesterday posted on her Facebook page this beautiful and haunting video of the coaches and artists from NBC’s hit show, The Voice, singing Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” in a tribute to the 20 children and six adults who died in the halls of Sandy Hook Elementary School. I think it is the simplicity of the song’s message that makes it so powerful.  Let the healing powers of the music fill your soul and… Read More

Fostering Resilience

November 15th, 2012
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“Nothing can make up for the absence of someone whom we love, and it would be wrong to try to find a substitute. . . That sounds very hard at first, but at the same time it is a great consolation. For the gap, as long as it remains unfilled, preserves the bond between us. It is nonsense to say that God fills the gap: he doesn’t fill it, but on the contrary, he keeps it empty and so helps us to keep alive our former communion with each other, even at the cost of pain. The dearer and richer… Read More

It’s Not What You Think

October 26th, 2012
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  To show you how little I knew about loss and the grieving process, I thought that the first year after my husband’s death was going to be the hardest time that I would ever have to experience.  My thinking was something along the lines of  “If I can get the first year under my belt, then each year after that will become easier to handle.” Right? Guess what? Not. Always. True. Grief is always full of surprises and just when you think you have it under control, you don’t. The first year was so raw with emotion for me… Read More

A Sweet Smile

October 8th, 2012
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  Photo By Sam Costanza When I first saw this story I thought it was about a guy driving a cab in New York City who just liked to give candy to his customers for fun. But the story is more than that. This quirky story is really about coming to terms with a loss in your life and how this man, who drives a cab in New York City, found a way to rebuild his life and make it less painful by bringing a smile to others.  It certainly is a unique way of dealing with grief. Wouldn’t you… Read More