Grief as an Origin Story As I’ve been preparing my kids for Halloween and enjoying all the fantastical costumes, superheroes, and popular toys of my own childhood, it has reminded me of a topic I’ve been mulling over in my head for months. It started over the summer...
Greetings – As I write to you from a faraway location where I snuck away from a work conference for a few hours to go catch some incredible live solo/acoustic music, I’m reminded of the awesome power, pain, rejuvenation, and healing qualities that music can have,...
Aspects of grief can feel jarring and destabilizing. As grievers experience the death, they must work through secondary losses like the absence of their favorite person to share a film, a dinner partner or expert on a topic. Changes do not only impact...
Grief can be overwhelming and powerful. It can keep you isolated and alone. It can have devastating consequences. It can shatter the world as you know it. Nearly 2.6 million people die in the United States annually, leaving an average of nine grieving people behind....
Andrew Michael Levinson 9/16/87 – 9/17/15 For Our Andrew – Life was never as expected. We couldn’t have imagined Muscular Dystrophy would be part of our son’s life, but at the start, there it was. And yet, the limitations of his diagnosis would not...
My Grief Journey My son died in 2006. It is inconceivable to me that he died & how many years it is. I could not grasp how my heart could be broken & yet it still beats. I discovered what courage truly is. I despise the reason that I learned that I am...
In the first year after my brother passed, I had a number of dreams in which he appeared and they always left me feeling helpless. I talked about them with my COPE group and was surprised to hear people say that they wished they had more dreams about their...
Many grievers feel unsupported as their grief continues beyond expectations of mourning time. There are messages in society that display support systems are comfortable when grievers return back to life as ‘normal’ and show they are outwardly functioning. ...
The great American author Ernest Hemingway once wrote “no one you love is every truly lost”. Since my daughter Samantha Rose passed away on June 12, 2009 at the age of 3, this thought has stuck with me and served as a mantra or credo of sorts. It’s a...
