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We often associate grief with the profound emotions that follow the death of someone  we love. While this is certainly one of the most obvious forms of grief, grief is far more expansive. It can live quietly within us through countless other moments and losses or scream for attention at the most unexpected times. One loss may awaken the emotions of another that has been lying dormant for years. The Conscious Grieving™ model identifies five specific forms of grief, each of w

This is a poignant time for me. For thirty-eight days, from January 1-- the day my son Graham went missing, and we later learned, the day he fell through the frozen lake-- until February 7, when we ultimately located and retrieved his body, I mark each 5-year anniversary with ritual and remembrance. January 20 was the day my friend Heather prayed with me for Graham to be found. I had nearly canceled, but something—or someone—told me I needed to be there. It feels like mystery

Countless times over the past five years, I’ve asked myself,  Where is my light?  Yes, I’ve been grieving. Yes, everything shifted after my son Graham died. But wasn’t I still the same person? Didn’t I still possess that lightheartedness, that humor, that instinct to savor—or create—moments worth savoring, just as my beloved dad had taught me? I noticed the zip was missing. Joy no longer arrived as easily. There were still moments of beauty and gladness, but the texture of ev

Many of us enter the new year with resolutions — promises to do more of this or less of that. But what if, instead, we welcomed the year with the intention of  being  more fully? Of inhabiting our lives more completely — showing up as our fullest, truest selves, present with both our joy and our heartbreak. What if we allowed grief to be a teacher, a sacred and wise guide, rather than something to escape or quickly replace? Setting the intention to  be  fully shifts the energ