A grandfather clock stands in the entryway of my parents home. It’s the first thing guests see when they’re all through the door. When it arrived, my dad showed my brother and me how it works, telling us to be mindful never to overwind it. We were fascinated by the mechanisms and I looked forward…
Tag: mental health
Listening To What Our Bodies Have to Tell Us: A Lesson From My Shoulder
I have a bad shoulder. I never broke it or injured it in any way. I don’t have a torn rotator cuff or labrum, and never had to have surgery on it. You might say, in a way that this is all a self-inflicted injury. Since my freshman year in college, my right shoulder has…
All Will Be Well…And Hell.
During the COVID quarantine, my friend and I read some of Julian of Norwich’s work. My friend had heard the saying, “All shall be well,” but was unaware of its origins. I was more than happy to introduce her to St. Julian, which felt especially fitting during lockdown. Julian of Norwich’s most often quoted text…
Fear and NOT Talking About Death
“What if people think I’m crazy?” “What if they think I sound ‘woo-woo’ and won’t understand?” “What if no one has had an experience like mine?” “What if it was all in my head?” “What if I’m wrong to feel resentment…relief…anger…happiness…?” “What if I’m getting grief wrong? Doing it wrong?” “What if I’m not ‘recovering’…
Holidays and Sneaky Grief
Holidays and Sneaky Grief When I was a little girl, our neighbor and bonus grandmother Bernice cooked a huge dinner for her closest friends. For years we attended this dinner and I remember seeing her wearing an old fashioned apron and her classically immovable hair. I thought it was so fancy that she slept on…
I can’t wear that!The Life You Choose, Introduction
A granddaughter goes shopping with her grandmother and finds a cute jacket in the junior’s section of the department store. The granddaughter loves the color on her grandmother and knows the grandmother is small enough to fit into the jacket. But the grandmother takes one look at the style and says, “I can’t wear that!”…
I am grief.
Every week, our yoga instructor encourages us to consider choosing a focus for our practice, suggesting such things as joy and calm. This morning one word came to mind and insisted on staying: grief. It is my honor to hear people’s experiences with grief as I visit groups and organizations to talk about my book,…
Prayerful Kitchen 