Dearest Journeyer, The holidays and special events can be a difficult time–period–with additional demands on your time, energy, and focus. Add in grief and it’s no wonder you might be feeling a little overwhelmed. First, I’m sorry you’re struggling, yet I’m happy for your courage to find the resolution that works for you. Chances are, if you’re here, you want … Read More
Holiday Healing Tips: Trim Your Event List and Letting Go
Some of our most favorite holiday traditions include family, friend, community, and corporate gatherings and parties. Many of us derive great pleasure from holiday activities, but they do place additional demands on our time and energy. If you are dealing with conflict or grief following a life loss event, the additional holiday stress can make you feel downright overwhelmed and … Read More
Ask Annah: How Do You Know if You’ve Officially Let Go?
Dear Journeyer, “How do you know if you’ve officially let go?” asks one of our neighbors. What a beautiful question. There really is no one right or wrong answer. The simplest answer is that you just know. You feel a sense of peace or resolution from your belly to your bones. Sometimes the heavens open, the angels sing, the doves … Read More
Take 5
Happy Sunday, Journeyer! This week’s title comes to you from this week’s marriage counseling session. I haven’t written anything about that part of mine and Hubby’s relationship for many, many months. Here’s why: The last time I did, a beloved reader questioned me about sharing this sort of information and shared her concerns about how discussing our marital work might somehow inhibit … Read More
Healing and the Two Sides of Forgiveness
“Meet people where they’re at.” Yesterday, while researching quotes for the chapter introductions of the two Grief Diaries anthologies I am co-authoring, I came across that phrase for the umpteenth time in the past couple of months. I have to be honest, though my brain comprehends what the words are saying, I haven’t been able to internalize what the expression means. Meet people … Read More
Drawing a Line in the Lemonade
It’s Sunday, Journeyer, and this is what I have to say: The wheels on the mini-van go ‘round and ‘round… This time we’re in Virginia for another training seminar that Fave and Warren are doing. I’m the unofficially official videographer for this event and let me just say my son has figured out how to treat his mama right. … Read More
Letting Go
Warren and I had our second appointment with a marriage counselor last week. This isn’t a new rodeo for us, as the saying goes. The first person we saw collectively was my own Counselor Hank from many moons ago. Actually the first person we saw, more than twenty years ago, was a guy who scribbled notes … Read More