Love Connections

February 14th, 2017
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snow heart

Valentine’s Day may be what some people call a “Hallmark Holiday” but love is always worth celebrating whether you embrace all of the commercial hoopla or just quietly light a candle, give a meaningful hug or tap out a telephone number to connect with a special person.

Love gives us hope.  Love makes us feel all tingly inside and helps our resilient hearts beat a little faster.  Love is exciting.

Love is also risky.  To find it is definitely a roll of the emotional dice and, depending on the person, you may want to immediately throw the dice.  Or as … Read More

Sweet Little You

October 21st, 2016
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      Yesterday morning, one of my nieces delivered her second child and shazam, just like that our large boisterous family has grown by one more! We expected her arrival at any time during this past week with everyone closely following the daily ups and downs of labor; starting, stopping, starting, stopping until the doctors decided that yesterday was the right time to induce and really kick her labor into high gear. At that point, things started happening very quickly and then suddenly Baby Lilly was here! When you are not around babies on an everyday basis, you can… Read More

Awesome Life Stories

September 8th, 2016
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Learning to Surf The Waves of Life Each of us has a story to tell about how our particular and significant lives have developed and unfolded over the years and it can be surprising how others decide to reveal pieces of these awesome life stories to us. The more I listen to people of all ages and cultures, the more I realize that we all have something in our lives that at some point has taken the wind out of us and made us question how we can continue on. Sometimes people tell you about their difficult circumstances over a… Read More

Help! I Can’t Find The Right Card

December 7th, 2015
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This has happened to me at least a million times and I bet this has happened to you too! You find yourself in the card section of CVS or your local card store and you’ve been standing there for about 10 to 15 minutes scanning the cards, taking them out one by one, reading them and then quickly rejecting them and putting them back. Totally Dissatisfied. Nope. Nope. Nope. When that happens, here’s what I’m usually thinking: I so liked the picture or drawing on that particular card and it was so so close to what I was looking for… Read More

Accepting Vulnerability

November 12th, 2015
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  Tommy At The Beach My heart is in a vulnerable place today for as much as I try every day to go forward and rebuild my life, the 12th of November always pulls me back to the morning of when my beloved husband Tommy died.  I have found there is really no way to prepare for this anniversary.  The ying and yang of the day can make me momentarily feel as though it just happened but then in the next moment it can make me feel that it has been more than 12 years since his tragic death. Little… Read More

Great Personal Expectations

June 11th, 2014
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When I am feeling vulnerable from making a mistake or stressed out from a work project or just plain personally overloaded by my life, I try to find something that will feed my inner resources.  Something that will feed my soul. If something goes wrong or becomes overwhelming or things in general don’t feel as though they are in sync in a good way, then I know I need to find a sweet spot where I can take a break and treat myself to something positive.  Not anything big or expensive.  Just something that makes the clouds break and brings… Read More

Commiting To Heal

March 18th, 2014
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When committing yourself to begin healing, you are taking an important step.  You are in effect looking around yourself and saying that today’s situation isn’t working well for you and you are choosing to change. I have found that it’s a decision that can make you feel two contradictory emotions at the same time. On the one hand, you are feeling brave to decide to open yourself up to change but on the other hand, the act of opening yourself up to something new is scary and nerve wracking because it’s unpredictable. We all react differently to the loss of… Read More

Pulling Together

January 29th, 2014
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I began writing Cry Laugh Heal in December 2010 to start an online discussion about grief and resilience, in particular to talk about the many ways we process it and how we can arrive at the realization that we can find strength and a different kind of future through our pain. My husband died in 2003 and I found that grief was not a topic most people wanted to talk about.  What a surprise right?  Of course, it was a subject I could go on and on about but in general it really makes people feel very uncomfortable and they… 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