Grief is a complex mix of emotions. Society’s focus on work and materialism adds to the difficulty of grieving. Grief isn’t limited to death; it can arise from various losses. Others’ discomfort with grief can make the experience lonelier. Unlike other feelings, grief can persist, with the pain often lasting. Seek support in coping with grief.
Over 10 years after it was published, I finally figured out how to read Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, the astonishing nonfiction book by botanist and poet […]
gods, monsters, and dreams you don’t have to believe in 1. There are only 5 stages of grief, and they’re linear. Nope. Actually, the original describer of those stages, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, came […]
The only thing we can rely on is that nothing will ever be the same for very long.
This wedding photo has been in my living room for almost 30 years. Do you see the beautiful young bridesmaid on the right, throwing rose petals? Her name is Rose Mary. She […]
Debbie Garcia-Bengochea, the bestselling author of Mini Horses, Mighty Hope and cofounder of Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses, recently sat down with me for a special episode of the This Animal Life […]
…We’ll float,
you said. Afterward
we’ll float between two worlds—
five bronze beetles
stacked like spoons in one
peony blossom, drugged by lust:
if I came back as a bird
I’d remember that—
until everyone we love
is safe is what you said.
The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not ‘get over’ the loss of a loved one: you will learn to live with it. You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again but you will never be the same. Nor should you be the same nor would you want to. -Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
A miscarriage is a natural and common event. All told, probably more women have lost a child from this world than haven’t. Most don’t mention it, and they go on from day to day as if it hadn’t happened, so people imagine a woman in this situation never really knew or loved what she had. But ask her sometime: how old would your child be now? And shel’ll know. -Barbara Kingsolver
Things falling apart is a kind of testing but also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together and they fall apart. The healing comes from letting there be room for all this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy. -Pema Chodron
The Gloria Sirens 