Posts Tagged: resilience

A Broken Christmas Ritual

December 31st, 2013
Posted By:

I can’t tell you why but for the first time in many years, I didn’t place a Christmas wreath on my husband’s marker at the cemetery.
I thought about it.  I was going to do it.  But then I never did get around to it.
I’m hoping that this doesn’t make me a bad person.I’m really hoping it just makes me a conflicted human being dealing with life the best way I know.Every Christmas since he died 10 years ago, I have made a personal ceremony out of placing a large Christmas wreath with a big red bow on his … Read More

Family Dynamics

December 27th, 2013
Posted By:

I’m sure I’m stating the obvious when I say that every family has its own dynamic and its own way of relating to each other and I think that this special form of communication developed within the family over the years is revealed in its barest form on a holiday. Let me tell you about mine.  Please?  Okay.  At least a little bit. Take 15 adults, 8 grandchildren in their teens and twenties, 6 children under the age of six and one newborn baby and put them all together in close quarters for a number of hours and what do… Read More

Christmas Eve 2013

December 24th, 2013
Posted By:

Have you been naughty or nice this year? Santa knows which one, and as the song says, he’s making a list and checking it twice! On this Christmas Eve, that seemed to arrive so quickly this year, I hope Santa is good to you and brings you exactly what you wished for.  Santa is one busy dude you know so don’t forget to put out the milk and cookies for him!  Sometimes we leave him a nice cold beer because we know that with all of his dashing around that he has worked up quite a thirst! Photo Courtesy of… Read More

Confessions of A Mediocre Widow By Catherine Tidd

December 20th, 2013
Posted By:

The title of Catherine Tidd’s new book suggests she is a mediocre widow. Don’t believe it for one second. Catherine Tidd is quite the opposite.  Catherine Tidd is in fact a courageous, smart and very funny woman in search of herself and an entirely different life while raising three young children after the death of her beloved husband, Brad, in a tragic motorcycle accident in 2007. Her book is refreshing and down-to-earth and is full of painful and funny personal insights about what happened to her after the death of her spouse: the hospital, the funeral, her in-laws, the whole… Read More

Bridget’s Affirmation

December 13th, 2013
Posted By:

When one of my nieces was three years old, she started going to nursery school for part of the day a few times a week.  Her mother (my sister) knew that while she was at school she would start to miss Mommy at some point so she taught her daughter to say to herself, “There is no need to cry.  Everything will be all right.  Mommy will be right back.” My sister was ahead of her time because she was teaching my niece to say an affirmation to herself even though she didn’t know what an affirmation was or what… Read More

Nothing More — The Alternate Routes

November 29th, 2013
Posted By:

After a day spent counting our blessings and giving thanks, today we are full of gratitude right? To keep that warm and fuzzy and wonderful feeling of kindness going, here is a song introduced to me by Hannah Donnelly (a Jesuit Volunteer Corps alumni & my son’s girlfriend) that I know I will be singing or humming to myself today or whenever I feel my patience starting to wear.  It is a beautiful song, offering hope and I think it fosters the spirit of giving. The song, “Nothing More” was written specifically for Newtown Kindness (www.newtownkindness.org) and is performed by… Read More

Amazing You!

September 26th, 2013
Posted By:

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:

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