I have a love hate relationship with the memories section of Facebook. I love looking back at pictures of the kids when they were little. Round faces, dimpled hands, and innocence. I hate that I don’t have more pictures of Tony with the kids, or just his legs made the shot. Seeing a photo of […]
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An Honor
Many years ago, probably 9 or 10 or 11 years ago, back when I was in the throws of seeing my grief counselor, Caitlin, every single Monday; she said something to me that I never forgot; and that stays with me especially now, all these years later, as I finish out my first two months […]
And a Little Dog Shall Lead Me
As an author who’s built a Writer’s Platform on an Observance known as National Dog Week, I’ve tried to make it my business to keep up with the myriad of holidays and observances established just to honor the pets and animals that enhance our lives. I’ve written previously about how pets are especially helpful and […]
June Arrives
The calendar confirms that today is June 1st. Anticipating June’s arrival, I feel like a veritable human rollercoaster about to take a stomach-churning plunge. *** Our Wedding Anniversary Lee and I were married in June. By then we were both middle aged, however, it was Lee’s first marriage. She happily planned every detail of our […]
Healing Support Tools: The Labyrinth
Labyrinths represent a journey or path to our own center and back again. The labyrinth serves as a metaphor for life’s journey. —Healing Consciousness Foundation What is a labyrinth? There are many definitions for the word “labyrinth”. One simple way to explain it is “a series of circuitous paths that lead to the center and […]
“The relationship I always wanted….”
Photo of my parents in 1961 in Córdoba, Spain – from their archives Medjool and I have just had a lovely 10 day “working break”, based mostly at my parents’ house in Céret in the Pyrénées Orientales, just inside France on the Franco-Spanish border. Now into their 80s, I try to get down to spend […]
Rollercoaster of Life
This week, I attended the 8th grade field trip to our local theme park. I was assigned a group of kids to check in with through the day, but they didn’t have to be actively chaperoned. So, with an entire day to spend in the park I found myself on a few rides. Hold on […]
New Life
When our person dies, we tend to focus on death and grief in general, for a rather long time. Of course we do. Why wouldn’t we? Grief and death came crashing into our world, and nothing was ever the same again. It’s safe to say that for most of us, the loss of our person […]
Nephew Like a Son
Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of the passing of my nephew, Zac. It is still so surreal to acknowledge that fact. Tomorrow he would’ve celebrated his 41st birthday. He was the only son of my sister, Manette, who passed at age 57 five years ago. That too is still difficult to process. We often […]
Ambition Loss
Because I am in a Ph.D. program, I get this question a lot: “what are you going to do with that?” or “what are you going to do when you graduate?” And, it is a normal question, and one I have probably asked many times to people who mention that they are in a degree-seeking […]
Form 632
I am not one of those people who is tethered to a cell phone, so, while the call had come in around 1 pm., I didn’t notice the message until nearly five o’clock. As soon as I saw it was from the “310 “area code, I assumed it was the Los Angeles law firm that […]
Here Comes Everybody
When my children were little, our youngest son always seemed to make a friend wherever he went. The library, in the aisles of the grocery store, or even while waiting for a prescription at the pharmacy. He was wired for seeing children in his world as “little-while friends.” When I attended Camp Widow, not long […]