Grief is Uniquely Yours

By: Michelle L. Cramer My friend Tishia was pregnant with triplets, Paul, Kyle, and William. Unfortunately, Paul passed away in the womb while Kyle and William were carried to term. Tishia is also deaf, so most of her adult interaction is through written communication.  After losing Paul, she sought support through groups on Facebook specifically…

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Grief

By: Amy Lied Grief is now a lifelong companion for me.  Over the course of the four years that I have been living with grief, it has evolved. Now, I can breathe easier, the grief more in the background with the occasional really heavy day. During those initial days after the loss of my son,…

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Helping Others Help You Through Loss

By: Molly Hickey Sipping coffee and sitting across from a long time friend, we talked about the weather, her kids, our jobs, and husbands. With each break in the conversation, I hoped she would ask about Joseph and Grace. I hoped she’d ask about how I am navigating the grieving process, ask how it felt to be back at work when I was…

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The Gift of Perspective

By: Sharon Schumack I recently read a magazine article about aging constructively that asked its readers the following questions: What were some of the most challenging experiences in your life? How did you get through them? What pushed you forward? I didn’t have to think very hard. The answers popped into my head immediately. The…

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Grief, Hope, and YOGA

By: Brooke Taylor Duckworth Before my daughter died, I didn’t understand that grief was a physical sensation. I knew what it meant to “feel sad,” but I had never grieved like this before. This was a whole-body experience. This was a constant headache, chronic tension from clenching my teeth and tightening my jaw. My body…

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Shattering the Silence

By: Autumn Purdy On a brisk, sunny morning recently, I drove my daughter to her socially distanced ballet performance of “The Nutcracker”. This year will be different than all other years: masks on, dancing within a taped-off box, no parents or audience, and instead of enjoying a matinee showing of the annual Christmas spectacular at…

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Kindness is Good for the Soul

By: Rose Carlson Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.  ~Anne Herbert It is quite possible that one simple little sentence scrawled on a paper placemat in a restaurant in Sausalito, CA in the early 1980s, sparked the concept of “paying it forward.” Random Acts of Kindness, or RAKs, such as paying for coffee…

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For Harmony

By: Rachel Helden This is my first time writing to you since you left this world only a few short weeks ago. How can it be? The excitement so fresh before me, before us, and now you are gone. Really gone. I spent days convincing myself that surely what doctors told us had happened to…

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