Some of our most favorite holiday pastimes include festive decorations and lights to adorn our homes and businesses. I typically spend a day with Christmas tunes streaming from the television as I carefully and joyously hang garland and strategically place NOEL blocks, Santa tapestries, themed bath linens, and other precious holiday pieces. Though I know a few people who only … Read More
Ask Annah: How Can I be Grateful in the Midst of So Much Pain?
Dearest Neighbor, November 1st always arrives with a flourish of “gratitude” memes and requests for you to participate in all sorts of activities and posts throughout the month. This daily practice can be downright grueling, disheartening, and un-empowering when you are in the doldrums or in a state of despair. I recall feeling inadequate during my grief periods following my … Read More
Ask Annah: What Can I Do With All This Survivor’s Guilt?
Dearest Neighbor, First, let me to tell you how sorry I am for your losses, for not only are you facing the death of someone you care about, you may also be experiencing other losses like the loss of emotional security, loss of dreams and hopes, and loss of companionship, to name a few. Survivor’s guilt stems from so many … Read More
Ask Annah: Why Do Friendships Change After a Significant Loss?
“Friendships are discovered rather than made.” ~ Harriett Beecher Stowe Dear Journeyer, “Why do friendships change after a significant loss?” is a question and conversation I hear regularly from people of all ages and across all loss forms. If you have discovered that your relationships with friends or family feel strange or estranged since a Significant Life Loss Event entered … Read More
Ask Annah: Why Do I Feel Worse 2-3 Years after My Significant Life Loss Event
Dear Journeyer, I am often asked some variation of this question: “It’s been three years since my child/parent/sibling/spouse/best friend died and I feel worse now than I did when it happened. What is wrong with me?” Though this query often references the death of a person, I have also heard it with regard to other forms of loss, including but … Read More
A Gift of Fatherly Love: Guest Post by “MrHeartlight,” Mitch Carmody
Dearest Journeyer, You know that person whose smile is so bright it lights up a room? The kind of person with a warm hug or firm handshake and a laugh that comes from deep within? The person who knows how to pick you up when you need a helping hand to lift you from the floor of devastation or one … Read More
The Reason Grief Feels Eternal
Even though it’s been twenty-seven years since my firstborn’s arrival into this world, I remember how eternal those weeks following his birth were. Like many moms do, I swayed in the rocker at the foot of the crib we’d so lovingly adorned the nursery with. I twisted the dial on the bed chamber’s musical mobile and awaited its soothing melodies. I … Read More
The Circle of Life
Happy Sunday, Journeyer! I know you will understand and appreciate the brevity of this post. I spent this past week preparing projects for this work, to train and certify five of our neighbors in the Integrated Energy Therapy® modality, and working my Outside Job. Today sums up so much of what Life is all about. In a matter of hours, … Read More
Healing and the Two Sides of Cooperation
Cooperation. It’s one of the first words we learn with regard to getting along with others. It often first appears in forms of obedience: cooperate with your parents by doing your chores, helping out in the household or with other siblings. We then move on to structures outside the home, daycare and school, where these same expectations for cooperation are tied … Read More
How I “Got” Happiness in an Utterly Deplorable and Lacking Week
“Happiness is a journey, not a destination; happiness is to be found along the way not at the end of the road, for then the journey is over and it’s too late. The time for happiness is today not tomorrow.” ~Paul H. Dunn Happy Sunday-Monday, Journeyer! You know how random life can be sometimes? How you’re plugging along all nice … Read More