Good morning... Yesterday Ben DeShetler's Caring Bridge post was short, simple, smiling: "Still NED! In case you haven't heard, Audrey is still NED!!! We are still waiting on the bone marrow results but they said probably not to worry. I'll post more later as I find out." On 4.13.17, my "Fab 5 friends" post told the story of my [...]
Good morning... He and his wife watched Manchester by the Sea and they found themselves discussing it at length that night and into the next day. Later, he wrote me: "For some reason I'm reminded of a poem by W. H. Auden that so stunningly expresses the terrible stage of grief where one is inconsolable. It's Funeral Blues, which [...]
Good morning... I enjoy periodic movie nights with my close friend. Last month we saw Manchester by the Sea and last night we experienced Moonlight. Both movies are heavy and heartbreaking, painful and poignant, raw and redemptive. After each movie, my friend and I talked for hours, untangling jumbled thoughts, expressing myriad emotions, connecting insightful dots. "The purpose of [...]
Good morning... Two emails came to me simultaneously. One simply said, 'GR8FUL,' indicating the single word one subscriber would put on her license plate. The other subscriber wrote, "I have found the grief to begin to loosen its grip on me as my gratitude catches up with the sadness. Eventually all I am left with is gratitude, love and [...]
Good morning... "Is grief ever really resolved?" I wonder to myself. The lives of some loved ones have ended abruptly. Others have endured a long, harsh season of dying. All are deeply missed by those who live on. As I walk alongside many grieving people, I wonder, "Is grief ever really resolved?" 'Resolve' is an interesting verb. In Latin, [...]
Good morning... I wake with a weird sentence saturating my brain. "Our tub is the epicenter of our healing." I told you. Weird. I am compelled to follow this 'epicenter' inkling. I discover, in greek, the root word means 'on the center.' The true center of movement, from which shock waves radiate. The command post or control center. The [...]
Good morning... Yesterday was the first Thanksgiving their loved one was not physically present at their earthly feast, having crossed over to heaven last spring. In a brand new way, this grieving family is making mashed potatoes. As I listened to his mourning mom talk about the conversations around their dinner table this fall, she said, "I have grown [...]
Good morning... My daughter said, "Mom, you have to read the article I just sent you. It's about the boy I know from Ole Miss who took his life." Opening her email, I read these heartbreaking words from the Clarion-Ledger newspaper article. "Rivers sent a text moments before pulling the trigger. He wrote: 'Mom, I love you, and I [...]
Good morning... “The accumulated sorrows of your exile (your being barred from comfort, your being kept from closeness, your inability to feel completely at home) will dissipate,” whispers the LORD through the pen of an Old Testament prophet. Zephaniah 3:19-20 in the Message translation continues: “I, your God, will get rid of them, your sorrows, for you. You’ve carried [...]
Good morning... Often the truth God teaches me daily, personally is echoed in the online meditation I receive from the Henri Nouwen Society at 5:05 am each morning. Yesterday was no different. I put a microphone to God's whisper, "Blend your 'being' with your 'doing' so all becomes an energizing prayer." Then I opened Nouwen's 11.17.16 devotional: "All Jesus' [...]
