Finding Peace in the New Year

By: Rose Carlson The holidays are over, and you may be breathing a huge sigh of relief that you made it through those stressful days. Hopefully, they weren’t as bad as you might have imagined they would be. Now it is a new year, a fresh start, and you may be dreading that as well.…

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Potholes of Grief

By: Rose Carlson One of the painful things about grief is there are a multitude of situations that can trigger heavy feelings that you don’t know what to do with, even months and years after your loss. Triggers can come from out of nowhere, and you do not always know what your triggers will be…

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How to Help your Grieving Child

By: Rose Carlson Children are often called the forgotten grievers, yet they often feel deep sadness and fear when their baby sibling dies. Depending on their age, they have limited understanding of death and what it means, but they can be quite intuitive and at the very least, they are aware that something is different…

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Creating a Healing Memorial Garden

By: Rose Carlson Many people enjoy gardening as a relaxing and comforting way to connect with nature, so creating a special memorial garden may be the ideal project for this spring. The planning process can give you something positive and creative to focus on at a time when you may have difficulty focusing on much…

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Words that Heal: Journaling your way through healing and hope

By: Rose Carlson People often feel intimidated by the thought of journaling because they think they are not good writers. Perhaps they have bad memories of papers and English classes with red pen marks pointing out every mistake. But journaling is not about “good” writing. Or grammar. Or punctuation. Or spelling. Or any of that.…

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What if you aren’t feeling thankful?

By: Rose Carlson ‘Tis the season to be…thankful? What if you don’t feel thankful, or think you have anything to be thankful for this year? What if you feel guilty about not having an “attitude of gratitude?” Others may tell you, “Just be thankful for what you DO have,” which can be hurtful and make…

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Joy as a Lifejacket

By: Rose Carlson I have cried so much this year That I’ve almost drowned. So, when you see me smile Don’t think I’m no longer in the water— Understand that my joy is a lifejacket. ~ Elisabet Velasquez As I was perusing Instagram early one morning, the above quote showed up in my feed. I…

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Its the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Except when your baby has died. Then, it can be the most awful time of the year. By: Rose Carlson As everyone around you goes about their joyful business of shopping and baking and shouting, “Happy Holidays!” or “Merry Christmas!” to everyone they meet, it can seem to you as if there is nothing wonderful…

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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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