Recently, I had one of those weekends where I did way too much. I haven’t had one of these kinds of weekends in a while. I overcommitted myself and tried to “do it all”, without really thinking about the emotional exhaustion it might bring. One of the weekend activities involved attending a birthday party of […]
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Countdown
It was supposed to have been Costa Rica. Or it could have been Panama. Maybe Ecuador, or even Nicaragua. Our long planned journey of a lifetime: to experience the joys of eternal spring, high in the green coffee mountains of Boquete; or, to awaken at dawn in the Osa to the calls of the howlers […]
Resilience
What is resilience? the Sea asked the Rock Ask the tree the Rock replied What is Resilience? the Sea asked the Tree We are it the Tree replied Sky, Tree, Plants, Rock, and Sea each in our own way. Keep going.
Learning to Shuck Oysters at 55
Main image by Tommaso Cantelli on Unsplash. Other pictures my own. I am a bit of an Omnivore, in that I eat everything, and always have done. I have never been a fussy eater, I have a great appetite (which I didn’t lose even when I had gastroenteritis, aged about 14), and I truly relish […]
Vacationing Without Him
After the success of surprising my kids last year with a Christmas trip to Orlando, I decided to try it again this year. On Christmas morning, they woke up to a scavenger hunt that revealed we were going to Jamaica for 6 days over the holiday break. This time we had a few days before […]
Don-spired
In the eleven years since the sudden death of my husband, there are so many things I have learned and continue to learn about life, about death, about grief, and about many other things. I think the thing that I have come to learn the most and also over and over again, is that no […]
Tapping in to The “Terrible Two-Year”
Posting here each Saturday has been an incredible opportunity. I love when someone tells me they’ve shared my post(s) with someone else who’s lost a spouse or experienced another kind of significant loss. Even those who haven’t have expressed their appreciation for the insight they’ve derived from some of these posts. That is what keeps […]
Comfort Food
First, there was his text wishing me a happy new year, then a call. My nephew Kevin said he wanted to get together for dinner. He wondered if I would be interested dining at a dismal Chinese restaurant located in a suburban strip mall where his grandfather –my dad—liked to go for family occasions. I […]
Reflections on Grief
From Toko-Pa Turner Gift from the new year — a single piece of paper with quotes about grief from Toko-Pa Turner’s book, Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home. There is nothing on the paper to say where it came from who typed it if it was a gift to me or . . . ??? I find […]
Channelling Spirits this Christmas
Image by Rob Wicks on Unsplash Today is my first “me day” in a fat week. I have had eight (mostly enjoyable, if also busy) continuous days of catering and making, shopping and cooking, organising and preparing, washing and folding, sweeping and wiping, loading and unloading, and even socialising. But today, I said, more to […]
Grief Is…a repost worth sharing
This week was the first anniversary of Tony’s death. Despite the strange time warp of grief, I have pulled us along into the second year. One hour, one day, one week, one month at a time. I imagine the road ahead is counted in years instead of the grains of time, but time will tell. […]
Peaceful New Year
New Years Eve and New Years Day is a loaded and complex time for a lot of people; and most likely especially for anyone who is grieving or going through a significant loss of any kind. The main word that comes to mind for me when I think about New Years Eve/Day is this: PRESSURE! […]