First of all, let me give a big, warm THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to stop by this blog. A bit ominous in title, but I assure you, the content will be anything but. Let me tell you a little bit about the origins and birth of Great, Big, Beautiful Grief Currently, I am smack dab in […]
December 30th, 2018, 4:45am is when she left us. But, December 29th was the last time I stroked her forehead, the last time I held her hand, the last time I heard her voice, the last time I cuddled up next to her as I would so often do in our youth, the last night I saw her alive. Two years have passed, and I can still recount every single moment of December 29th, 2018, from the moment I awoke on that warm winter’s morning in Southern California, until 12:32am, December 30th when I made the phone call to my mom, telling her she had better hurry and get to the hospital, where I had spent hours next to my big sister, watching her labored breathing, massaging her bony legs, and laying with her when she needed a warm body next to her, for five hours straight, willingly, heartbreakingly, but oh the preciousness of those hours. The last text from Marnie came to me at 7:16pm on December 29th with the words “Come here.” She wanted me there. What a tremendous honor that, as she was fading, she remembered he little sister, who looked up to her and loved her so much, and she wanted me there. December 29th was when I rushed over to the hospital, ran to her room only to enter to one of the most heartbreaking sights I’d ever beheld; a mother saying goodbye to her […]
Yesterday evening I was enjoying some quiet time in our “tree-house,” or so we’ve taken to calling the upper-level of our home. Perched at eye-level with the highest branches of a number of Maple trees, it is the only room in the third story of our cabin-like haven, and a perfect place to relax, work, write or think. I find myself deep in thought often these days… Thoughts about the state of the world, about life, and love, and hatred. I think about friendship and the number of friendships that the current climate has dissolved. I think about values and virtues of my loved ones and acquaintances, and how I really love trying to understand why someone believes as they do (it’s like, each person is their own little history book, and I’m one of those people who LOVES to peel back the pages and start at the beginning). Then, I often find myself crumbling into the abyss of my own mind. I internally weep for the lives that have been lost in recent months, whether from an invisible enemy or a visible one. I weep for the loss of compassion and understanding in a world of me-ness. I weep for the hardened hearts, so filled with anger, that are beating so blindly, not comprehending that other choices are available to quell that anger. When this happens, when I find myself getting lost in a wood of depressive thoughts, I […]
“How great it is when we come to know that times of disappointment can be followed by joy.” -Fred Rogers Today is Saturday, April 4th, 2020. The sun is shining bright, the air is brisk, the birds are singing, and the ice has melted away. Spring is definitely in the air. Yet, the world is in chaos. Businesses have shuttered […]
Are you one of the unfortunate humans who walk the earth having experienced a significant loss? I’m talking about a loss; a close family member, a best friend, a parent, son, daughter, etc… You get it. One aspect of loss that never ceases to amaze me is that SO many people become your “best friend” when life goes awry. Everyone […]
On January 22nd, 2019, I was nothing more than a hollow vessel perusing the surface of the Earth. There was nothing in me that was not grief, anger, or sadness, as much as I wanted to be the portrait of the picture perfect, faithful servant, who wanted to very much to understand why the Lord took her away. On this […]
“The Irish: be they kings, or poets, or farmers, they’re a people of great worth. They keep company with the angels and bring a bit of heaven here to earth.” We often hear the phrase, “travel moves you,” and while I have seen my fair share of the world, there has been no place that has touched my heart the way Ireland […]
I’m not talking about my own death, obviously (although that’d be pretty cool if I was coming to you from the afterlife). No, I’m talking about the death of someone I love, someone who knew me since the day I was born, someone with whom I grew up, someone who rejoiced with me on my happiest days and who held […]
It was a day like any other day. I woke up, threw on some workout clothes, made coffee, saw the husband off to work, fed the child and dropped the child off at school, and prepared to head out for my daily jog. Then, Ding Ding Ding went the reminder app on my smart phone. I had completely forgotten that […]
Great, Big, Beautiful Grief is heading into its second week, and oh, so many encouraging comments, follows, shares and, most importantly, an abundance of genuinely loving support! Thank you to everyone who has reached out, read and absorbed. It means the world and fills my heart with the utmost gratitude. When I first introduced the blog to the public, I […]
Anyone who knows anything about grief (and even one who doesn’t) has most likely heard of the five stages of grief. These stages were realized by Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a pioneer in near death studies. She did not develop the stages to describe the stages of loss people go through when someone dies, however, they are more about what terminally […]
